Dr. Hall,
I had 4-front teeth crowned with porcelain over metal. I am VERY upset because I was not informed about the dark line that I now see?? I did go to dentist today & he is replacing 1-tooth w/ dark line, but after just a month of having these crowns, I noticed on the back of THIS PARTICULAR TOOTH a spot of METAL appeared. I think that is why he is replacing it. Is this a rare problem?? I wish that I had known my options!!?? How much does a crown w/ porcelain over metal cost?? I am in a small town near Tampa! I paid about $989 per crown; is that too much?
– Shirley from Tampa

Shirley,
Back in the early 1980s, putting porcelain fused to metal crowns on front teeth was a good idea. But not in 2013. There are now porcelain bonding techniques where porcelain can be bonded directly to the tooth instead of having to be bonded to a metal framework to give it strength. And there are new high-strength ceramics. So there is no longer any need for the metal foundation. All-ceramic crowns are plenty strong enough to serve just fine on front teeth.

In my opinion, a dentist who is serious about the appearance of his or her dental work wouldn’t even dream of putting a porcelain fused to metal crown on a front tooth. Not only does the metal make the crown look opaque, but you will have that awful dark line at the gumline. And if the dentist is successful in hiding that under the gum for now, in a few years the gums will often recede a little and the dark line will become visible.

So what you have is a dentist who doesn’t really care that much about how your smile looks. If you do, then you have a basic disconnect with this office. Now I want to be careful here, because many of these dentists who aren’t very concerned about the appearance of their work are excellent dentists. They are very engineering oriented and careful and thorough. They’re just not artistic. And this is the case with about 98% of dentists, maybe more – they simply aren’t artistically inclined at all.

So then what do you do about the four crowns you have? And my guess is that the dark line isn’t the only appearance-related problem with this work. They will have to be kind of opaque. I doubt they sparkle like natural teeth. And the shapes may not be natural. But replacing them with work from a truly artistic dentist will cost you another $1000 per tooth, and your insurance won’t cover that probably for another five years at least. But that is the only remedy. So when you’re ready to have them replaced, find an expert cosmetic dentist from our list and have this done right.

About the fee you paid – $989 is a typical fee for a crown. (Click here to read about costs of porcelain crowns.) The sad thing is that for that fee, or maybe just a little more, you could have had a beautiful all-ceramic crown that would have enhanced your smile rather than detracting from it. And about the metal on the back – remember that this is a porcelain fused to metal crown. They will often have a metal back. The metal back is actually gentler on the opposing teeth that chew against these teeth than the porcelain would be, and it shouldn’t be visible from the front. If you just have a spot of metal showing, then you probably had a thin layer of porcelain there over the metal. That shouldn’t cause any problem.

– Dr. Hall