I’m getting two dental implants placed on my front teeth. Two implants and two crowns. I’ve been doing some research and have some questions. First, my dentist is going to put two crowns on the adjacent teeth, for appearance reasons. My dentist is about to place the crowns, but I have some questions. My smile shows a lot of gum. Shouldn’t there be some kind of procedure that shapes the gums so it doesn’t look like the crowns are just sitting on them? I’m also thinking that I probably should get my teeth whitened before I have the crowns placed, because I read somewhere that the crowns won’t whiten. I think I should whiten my teeth and then have the crowns made to match my new white teeth, correct?
Sandee- Michigan
Sandee,
It sounds to me like you know more about the aesthetic procedures than your current dentist does and that worries me. You may have a very good dentist, who got into dentistry for the mechanics of it. However, that does not mean he is good at the cosmetic side of things. To answer your question, absolutely, you should do any teeth whitening before you have the crowns made. Like you said, the crowns will not whiten once they are placed, so either you’ll have a less than white smile if you do nothing, or if you try to whiten afterward they’ll look darker than your other teeth. If you get your teeth whitened first, then your crowns can be made to match the brightness of your white smile. Again, the results of that will depend on how artistic your dentist is.
I have a second concern. If the only problem with your adjacent teeth is their appearance then getting crowns placed on them seem an unnecessarily intrusive procedure. Why file down completely healthy teeth? Instead the cosmetic procedure of choice would be to have porcelain veneers placed on them.
A true cosmetic dentist would have considered all these issues, plus had a solution for not only the gumline you are concerned about, but your lipline as well.
I hope this helps.
This blog is brought to you by Seattle Cosmetic dentist Dr. Brian McKay.
