I am pretty keen at whitening my teeth. My family dentist doesn’t do teeth whitening, so I went to another dentist to have that done. I started with Zoom and then they gave me some trays and gel that I could keep whitening at home and do touch ups. As a result, I have fairly white teeth. I go to my family dentist for everything else because I’ve been seeing him since I was twelve years old. I need a dental crown on the tooth next to a front tooth. He said he’s giving me the whitest available, but that my teeth are whiter than most crowns. I can’t be their first person who has whitened their teeth to need a crown. Have you encountered this?
Emily
Dear Emily,
I suspect I know exactly what is going on here. Your dentist is likely a brilliant general dentist and, based on what you described, he doesn’t really do any cosmetic work. Bleaching teeth is the absolute easiest cosmetic procedure.
When dentists are creating dental work, such as a dental crown, they use a color guide to help them match it, such as the one above. For years, that shade guide was sufficient. However, in the 90s, teeth whitening started gaining popularity. That led to people having a shade of teeth that was whiter than even the whitest in the shade guide that dentists had used.
Fortunately, the companies who provided these understood the problem and came up with an updated guide. These included the new, whiter shades that were becoming more and more popular (shown below).
Unfortunately, unless a dentist does a lot of cosmetic work they may not have seen the need for it. If he has the old shade guide, I can understand why he’s having a hard time matching it. I would not simply have your dentist use the new guide. The tooth which you are having crowned is quite exposed. It would take a dentist with more expertise in this type of color work.
I would go to a dentist who does a lot of cosmetic work to have your dental crown done. You can still stay with your family dentist in order to have your general work done. I understand what it means to feel loyal to someone.
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