Hi, it’s Dr Michael Ghobrial here from Sure Dental. Often I have patients who are looking at getting small makeovers, or rehabilitation of their bite, come to me for a second opinion or a third opinion. Because it’s important to be well thought out and have lots of information before committing to any sort of bigger treatment. And they mention, “Listen, the dentist is going to do a bunch of crowns on my front teeth to improve my smile, to lengthen the teeth, to restore chips and braking.” And oftentimes I actually find myself talking patients out of such treatment. And so I thought I’d write this blog to help you decide or understand a little bit better about crowns versus veneers when we’re restoring a tooth.
A porcelain crown encases the whole tooth, it goes all the way around the tooth. What that means is to place a porcelain crown we need to reduce the thickness of the crown from the tooth all the way around it. Now, oftentimes a porcelain crown is a really great solution for a back tooth that’s really high load. Those teeth tend to be bigger, so removing that crown thickness all the way around the tooth doesn’t structurally compromise it too much, and you get the benefit of the encasement and the protection from the fracture of a crown. But when we come to the front of the mouth it’s an entirely different story, because they are smaller teeth. And by the time you remove adequate tooth structure to be able to put a crown on there, and also to make the crown look nice, we actually often end up finding ourselves compromising the integrity of the tooth.
And so oftentimes my preference when it comes to front teeth, and of course there’s exceptions to everything and different situations need different things, and that’s why a really thorough assessment is very, very important, but most times my preference on front teeth is actually to put veneers on them. Because the benefit of a veneer is we reduce very little if any, tooth structure. And oftentimes with our porcelain veneers that are nice and stiff, it can actually result in a strengthening of the tooth structure as well. So it’s far more conservative of the tooth, they look great, and they’re not going to weaken the tooth the same way a crown will.
I hope you’ve found this useful in understanding crowns versus veneers in restoring teeth. But again, for your specific scenarios, it’s very important to have a thorough assessment and understand the full picture in your mouth. But these are general principles that are hopefully helpful for you in educating yourself. If you have teeth that are broken down, if you’re considering crowns or veneers and you want some more info or want a thorough assessment, why don’t you drop us a line on our website at suredental.com.au? Otherwise direct message us on our social media. Or better yet, give us a call on 07 3113 9698.
