Porcelain Crown on Both Front Teeth? Or Porcelain Crown on Just the Tooth Actually Needed?

If tooth #8 is in good condition please don't touch it, ask you dentist to work with a master ceramist that can do a perfect match to your natural tooth, if #8 has a condition you want to change but is in general in good shape definitively a veneer is a more conservative restoration that if well done would last as much as a crown. It is imperative that when doing this there is great communication between the clinician and the lab tech by photographs, color maps, etc in order to achieve a good result.

You are ABSOLUTELY CORRECT, do one veneer and one crown, NOT TWO CROWNS.

If your dentist cannot do this, then I recommend you find a cosmetic dentist who can do that.  There is no need to drill off the backside (tongue side) of the tooth for the fronts of the two teeth to look identical.  However, this can most likely only be done for a great color match if the crown is an all porcelain (not porcelain fused to metal) crown, the same type of porcelain used for the crown as the veneer, and that they are both done at the same time by the same ceramist.

An interesting fact is that when doing strength tests, if the back side of the incisors (the cingulum or bump area) is drilled off for a crown instead of a veneer, that the result will be the underlying tooth will be much weaker.  Thus the reason so many cosmetic dentists recommend doing what you are suggesting.'

If you look through many of the cases on the blog listed below, you will see that there are a number that have one crown on a front tooth and veneers on the others.

Without seeing what #8 actually looks like it is difficult to recommend one or the other.  If #8 is pristine then a great lab with great communication from the doctor should yield a #9 that matches #8.  If #8 could benefit in other ways than color (like shape, size, position), then its possible to veneer it and crown #9 with a perfect match.  Again without seeing what shape both teeth are in, its impossible to give you concrete advise.

 

Hope this helps,

Dr. John Schmid DDS LVIF