Question:
My dentist wants to give me Zirconia Crowns on my front teeth. Is this a good idea?
Answer:
Zirconia by itself has moderate aesthetic properties. The problem with pure zirconia for a crown on a front tooth is that zirconia is milled out of a block of material. The laboratory technician can pick the shade of the tooth and even the level of translucency, but it will be one color and level of translucency throughout. Natural teeth have gradations of colors and translucencies in them. But I’m hoping that your dentist isn’t planning on doing pure zirconia for your front teeth, but rather layered zirconia, which is zirconia veneered with porcelain. He or she will have the framework of the crown milled, with space on the front ground out for placing porcelain. The technician will then stack the porcelain, using various tints and translucencies. The final result can be very aesthetic.
Zirconia is an extra tough ceramic material, and it can be made extra thin. They have no metal in them, and can be made translucent or opaque, depending on the demands of the situation. They won’t show a dark line at the gumline years later, the way porcelain fused to metal crowns do.
To show how beautiful they can look, here is a case of zirconia veneered with porcelain from our recommended cosmetic dentist in Monmouth County, New Jersey, Dr. Peter Ciampi. For more information on Dr. Ciampi, click here.
But, we need one important caution here when we talk about materials for crowns. Let your dentist pick the material. All of these materials have a learning curve to them, plus there are some dentists and dental laboratories that just don’t feel comfortable working with certain materials. There are several types of crowns that can give an absolutely gorgeous result. Pick a cosmetic dentist you can trust and then let him or her work with the materials they are comfortable with—don’t try to push them out of their comfort zone.
—Dr. David Hall.
Click here to ask Dr. Hall a question.
Click here to go back to the frequent questions about cosmetic dentistry page.
More questions:
- Should I get porcelain veneers, or should I just have my teeth whitened?
- I have heard that MAC veneers are the best looking available. Is that true, and should I tell my dentist that this is what I want?
- I have a discolored tooth from a root canal that was done 15 years ago. What can be done to make that one the same color as my other front teeth?