Dental Crowns or Veneers for Two Front Teeth?

In dental school, dentists were taught to automatically crown a root canal tooth. With advances in adhesive esthetic dentistry we no longer have to follow that rule with anterior teeth. The root canal tooth should be fit with a fiber post to give it added strength without compromising esthetics and both teeth prepared for porcelain veneers. The veneers should be designed in such a way so they look much like 3/4 porcelain crowns for added strength and longevity. I have done this many... more

There is a valid argument to a full crown on the tooth that had the root canal, but if were me, the veneer would remain a veneer on the adjacent tooth. If the crown is going to be with a metal core, then yes, matching the color would be hard. I just wouldn't recommend the metal core type. I would ask for a brand of all porcelain crown and veneer called empress, and the color matching should not be too difficult.

With the newer materials we have today there should not be a problem matching crowns and veneers on front teeth since they can be made with the same materials without metal underneath the porcelain. Whether or not a root-canaled front tooth needs a crown depends on how much strong tooth structure is remaining. I prefer to preserve as much tooth structure as I can, so I lean toward a veneer if possible.

I would do a crowm on  the tooth that had the root canal. The tooth that had the veneer would receive a new veneer. I would use an Empress Crown and it would be easy to match the porcelain crown to the procelain veneer.

If you were my patient, I would do the crown and the veneer almost without fail.  Recent improvements in materials give us to the ability to do this procedure: 1.  Without a need for metal substructure, and; 2.  And very closely match a ceramic/porcelain crown with a porcelain veneer.