How natural do dental prostheses look?

Well-made prostheses do not stand out. That sounds obvious, but it is the hardest goal of the whole treatment: a crown does not have to be beautiful, it has to match the teeth beside it – and those are rarely even, rarely one single colour and never perfect.

What the eye catches on

It is almost never the colour alone. Four things give a restoration away, usually in combination:

• The margin at the gum. A dark seam comes either from a metal framework under the ceramic or from gum that has receded.
• The translucency. Natural incisors are slightly translucent at the edge. A tooth that stays solid and opaquely white there looks lifeless.
• The evenness. Real teeth are never exactly the same length and never exactly the same brightness. A row that is too perfect is spotted at once.
• The shape. It belongs to the face and to the age. A youthfully round incisor rarely fits at sixty.

Where aesthetics really count

In the posterior region hardly anyone sees anything. What matters there is that the restoration holds and the bite is right – a crown with a metal framework is often the more durable choice for that, and considerably cheaper.

What is visible in most people is the upper front, six to ten teeth depending on the smile line. How far your smile reaches shows when you speak, not on the plaster model. It is worth raising that before the planning.

What is in your own hands

Three points cannot be made up for later:

• Whitening first. Ceramic cannot be bleached afterwards. Anyone who wants their own teeth brighter does that before the shade is taken – not after.
• The shade early in the appointment. After a longer treatment with the mouth open, the teeth dry out and look brighter than they are.
• Use the try-in. Before the final fitting you see the prosthesis in your mouth. Whatever you do not like there, say so now; after that every change becomes elaborate.

How the shade is arrived at is described under Tooth shade and tooth shape. Which restorations manage without metal is explained by Metal-free prostheses; the sober comparison of the materials can be found under Crowns of ceramic, zirconia or metal.