Crowns on front teeth

[silentg]

Hi All,

I'm a year into my treatment plan. I had a root canal on one of my front teeth and it had a small vertical crack at the time. After looking at x-rays today, the crack has gotten larger. Dentist wants to crown it and my other front tooth (so they'll match). I am nervous, but OK with this decision. My question is that my teeth are discolored and I would like to whiten them, as in, I don't want the crowns to be the same color as my teeth now, because I would still "hide" my smile if my teeth end up being the same color.

I explained this to the dentist today, but he just sort of shrugged it off, saying, don't worry, we'll match them. And that was that. My other front teeth that "show" haven't had any work on them. Should I insist that we "whiten" the other teeth before doing the crowns? I hate to pay a ton of $ and still be unhappy with my smile.

 

[saralou35]

I’m having a back crown and also wondering the same thing!? I think if it were front ones I’d def whiten the rest first as you can’t whiten crowns oncecthey are on!

 

[Enarete]

I explained this to the dentist today, but he just sort of shrugged it off, saying, don't worry, we'll match them. And that was that. My other front teeth that "show" haven't had any work on them. Should I insist that we "whiten" the other teeth before doing the crowns? I hate to pay a ton of $ and still be unhappy with my smile.

Sorry to hear this. I would actually say: find a dentist who takes you and your questions seriously (I know there might be insurance issues that make this difficult, but this is the first thing coming to my mind)
Your worry is very logical and valid and you can't decide what to do without getting information from your dentist. If I were you, I would also wonder how long a whitening would keep its effect and how it will look like between the whitening appointments. And also, what material the crowns will have and how stable it would be in color.
It's never a good idea to agree on a treatment you are not 100% happy with. If you have worries or feel like lacking information, it's your dentist's job to address this. After all, you are a paying customer and it's your health (and appearance).

 

[comfortdentist]

In general if you ant to change the shade then bleach professionally and wait a little then crown

 

[LenaD]

I would discuss your whiting now and find the shade that you are comfortable with. Before I got married I had to replace a bonded tooth with a crown. My then dentist said to achieve what shade I wanted and they would match the new crown to that. I did end up going a hair less white because I knew it would a fools errand to keep up whiting. I’m happy with my choice today because I do whiten every couple years but don’t look silly when I dont.