E.Max Vs Empress Crowns For Most Natural Looking?

A high quality dental laboratory which is usually used by an experienced cosmetic dentist can make natural-looking crowns with either E.Max or Empress. 

For many years I used Empress only in my practice.  The crowns were beautiful...but in patients who grind their teeth (and so many people do) and have worn, chipped teeth anyway, I was always nervous they wouldn't be strong enough.

E.Max crowns are equally beautiful in the hands of a skilled technician.  In fact, in my own mouth I now have all E.Max crowns and I will tell you people compliment me on my smile all the time, and are surprise when I tell them it's all porcelain! They are also exceptionally strong and bond wonderfully to the tooth underneath.

Basically, the key here is...start with an experienced dentist you trust, and you will certainly end up with wonderful results!

Empress was the "Aesthetic Choice" for many years, though somewhat brittle.  Now that we have eMax veneers and crowns made of dilithium silicate, we have aesthetics and durability in one.  If you are going to make a significant investment in your smile, you want it to last.  How natural it looks depends more on the special artistic training your dentist and ceramic artist (beyond a mere lab technician) have accomplished than on the substrate chosen.  How do you know if you are in the right hands?  If your dentist comes at you with a needle before taking countless close up photos and shade matches, then run don't walk. 

The quality depends a lot on the dental lab.  Empress looks very nice, however, I have seen excellent results with Emax.  I have found that not very many people will be able to tell the difference even some dental professionals can't tell the difference.  Below is an example of an Emax case that I did recently. 

For some time we have felt that Empress crowns look more natural than an Emax crown. But this is changing.  Emax is definitely catching up with Empress in the esthetic result.  And Emax is significantly stronger than Empress.  At this point if I had the crowns on my front teeth replaced I would do Emax.  And I'm pretty picky.  I hope that helps.  Good luck.  

To an skilled eye, Empress looks better, but most people cannot tell the difference. However empress is not as strong as E-max. Patient selection as well as teeth selection is the key. If the individual has perfect bite and chewing habits, is not a clincher, grinder, and does not have head and neck and TMJ disorder issues, the anterior ( front) region which are not the chewing teeth can be made in empress and posterior ( back chewing ) teeth with  E-max. 

Almost always however ideal bite does not exist, therefore, I place over 99 % E-max, and very rarely empress is not 

 

 

In MY opinion, Empress is the nicest looking, but may not be as durable. eMax is very strong, but not quite as pretty.  The newer formulations from Ivoclar are making eMax look better, and with a very skilled lab they can look great.  They are BOTH from Ivoclar, and I believe Ivoclar is phasing out Empress.

 

This is minutiae, though.  Most people can't tell the difference, so I would suggest eMax.  Most of what I place is eMax.