I recently had to get a dental crown on a lateral incisor. My dentist has given me two crowns that are too dark. He’s telling me it is the whitest shade available. Are my teeth too white to have any restorative work done that will match?
Kelli
Dear Kelli,
The problem is not how white your teeth are. The big problem here is you are going to a basic general dentist who does not understand cosmetic dentistry. When dentists are providing a tooth restoration, such as a dental crown, they use something known as a shade guide. Above I have posted the old Vita Shade Guide. This used to be the standard and a dentist could match any tooth with it.
Then, the 1990s happened and teeth whitening exploded in popularity. Suddenly, there were teeth that were whiter than the shade guides and dentists were having the darndest time matching those teeth. Realizing the issue, Vita came out with an updated shade guide (pictured below). This added new whiter shades to the shade guide. With this updated guide, dentists are more able to match the teeth of their patients who whiten.
It’s obvious your dentist has not kept up with the cosmetic side of his field. He may not be the best dentist to serve you if you care about aesthetics as well as the health of your teeth. That’s okay. There are different flavors of dentists for everyone. There are bread and butter dentists who just want to do the basics and keep their patient’s teeth healthy. Then there are dentists who are equally passionate about the cosmetic side of things. There are even dentists who ONLY want to do cosmetics. Each are useful and serve clients well, depending on what the patient is looking for. Many people just want a bread and butter dentist and nothing more. I don’t think that is you. Because of that, you will be better off with a dentist more interested in cosmetics.
My suggestion is you get this crown done by a dentist who does a lot of cosmetic work. This is going to be a tooth visible when you smile and you will want it to blend in with your teeth.
This blog is brought to you by Des Moines Cosmetic Dentist Dr. Phelan Thomas.