Matching My Dental Crown to My White Teeth

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I have a problem with my dental crown. I whiten my teeth regularly. My dentist doesn’t do this procedure, but a few years ago I had zoom whitening done at another practice and I get whitening gel from them once a year to use in the take home trays they provided for me. I’ve damaged a lateral incisor and it needs a dental crown. My dentist is having a hard time matching the crown to my teeth. I will admit that they are very white. I can’t be the only one with really white teeth that needs a dental crown, though. Is there a way to get this to match?

Annabelle

Dear Annabelle,

You are correct that you are not the only person with white teeth that has need of a dental restoration such as a porcelain crown. The good news is that there is a way to get the crown as white as your teeth. It is pretty apparent that your current dentist does not do much, if any, cosmetic work. That would explain why he cannot match this crown.

Dentists will use a shade guide to get the base color for the dental crowns. In times past, before teeth whitening became the norm, they would use a shade guide similar to the one directly above.  This worked with the natural color of teeth. However, in the 1990s, teeth whitening soared in popularity. After that, even the whitest color on the shade guide was not white enough. That is when the updated shade guides started coming out.

As you can see in the shade guide directly above, this company added an extension with the brighter shade options. One of these will help your dentist match your dental crown a bit better.

If this were a front tooth, your dentist would need to do more than just match the base shade. He would also need to add tints to various parts of the tooth. This is because the light hits your front teeth directly which exposes all the subtle variations. It’s also possible this will be necessary with your lateral incisor as well. Because of that, make certain he uses a temporary try in paste and you get to look at the crown in some good lighting and approve the results before it is permanently bonded on.

This blog is brought to you by Franklin, TN Cosmetic Dentist Dr. Christopher Weber.