Posted by writeradmin
My dentist swears he gave me the whitest crown available but it is still darker than the teeth that are next to it. While it isn’t a very front tooth, it is still obvious this tooth does not match the others. To me, that makes it obvious it is a fake tooth and not one of my natural ones. Is there anything that can be done to fix this? He’s talking about staining my natural teeth, but I definitely do NOT want that!
Sandy
Dear Sandy,
He wants to stain your teeth?! You’ve got to be kidding me. This is definitely not the best dentist for you. See if you can get a refund on this dental crown. Then, I want you to go to a different dentist to have this done.
I think I know what is going on here. My guess is you’ve done some teeth whitening. Most people think that teeth whitening simply removes the stains from your teeth. However, it actually does more than that. It can actually bleach your teeth whiter than even its natural pigment. This created a conundrum for dentists.
In order to get a basic match between a dental crown and the adjacent teeth, dentists use what is known as a shade guide. The old shade guide is pictured directly above. I think this is the one your dentist is still using (or at least one similar). This was fine before teeth whitening grew in popularity. Around the 1980s, however, almost everyone started teeth whitening. Dentists started noticing that their patient’s teeth where now whiter than the shade guide options. This was especially the case with dentists who did a lot of cosmetic dentistry.
To fill in the gap, companies started updating their shade guide to allow for shades whiter than even normal teeth for dentists to match the crowns to. An example of this updated shade guide is directly above. A dentist familiar with cosmetic work will be able to do a fine job for you.
This blog is brought to you by Lafayette, LA Dentist Dr. John Theriot.