Do front tooth crowns have to be ugly?

Everybody has seen a crown on a front tooth that doesn’t match the other teeth and/or looks dark purple to black around the gums. A tooth colored crown can be beautiful and life like. We never notice beautiful crowns since they blend in and do not draw attention to themselves. Usually the dark purple to black you see around the gums is a metal margin (edge) on the crown. The metal will also block light transmission to the tooth root which can make the gums appear dark.

There are newer crown materials that do not need the metal core and can eliminate or reduce the dark shadowing around the gum line. Some teeth are more difficult to get an optimal result (such as a root canalled tooth that has turned black (difficult to have natural tooth translucency and not have some dark shadowing)).

Matching a single front crown to natural teeth is one of the most difficult cosmetic challenges a cosmetic dentist can face. It takes an extremely skilled laboratory technician to fabricate a beautiful crown and excellent communication to the laboratory technician from the dentist.

At Sherwood Dental Care we take a shade visually and electronically and then carefully take photographs and color correct them for the laboratory technician. It may take multiple visits to get the optimal color match. Because a crown is not the same material as a tooth slight color variations in different lighting should be expected.