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How does the new front tooth look? Too dark?

M

MountainMama

Well-known member
Joined
Jul 1, 2018
Messages
2,593
I got my implant crown seated today. The dentist still isn’t 100% happy with the color but he said we can redo the crown later if need be. He wanted me to evaluate it and see how it felt and looked to me. He wanted to get the crown in because my teeth around it were shifting inward, and my flipper was getting tight to take in and out.
So the gums were super tight but he wants to give it two weeks for them to relax down. Right now there is a spot that is almost bluish colored from being compressed. He said he didn’t want to cut unless he had to, to preserve aesthetics.
The problem is that I haven’t had a “normal” tooth in there for a long time. I can’t tell if it looks good or not. My husband said it is a little darker, but doesn’t look bad. I would think it would be near impossible to get a perfect color match. He already sent it back once as it was too light. I think it looks off somehow, but can’t verbalize what it is. Or maybe the dentist telling me that he wasn’t 100% happy with it has made me biased?
Sorry the picture quality isn’t great.
DCA2B527-1A95-4DEF-A190-4D6FCC9651ED.jpeg
 
Hi Mountain mama!!

So glad you got it in !! HOw do you feel about it ? and how does it feel biting down? It might look a little different but I think you have a great smile!! :) lovely to see!!
 
The colour does look a smidgeon off to me, but not bad, matching a single incisor is always a huge challenge.
Give it a few days till it all settles in and then see how you like it. Bear in mind that natural teeth aren't always the same shade anyway, my 2 central incisors are markedly different from each other.

Chances are most people other than dentists won't give it a second glance :)
 
Hi Mountain mama!!

So glad you got it in !! HOw do you feel about it ? and how does it feel biting down? It might look a little different but I think you have a great smile!! :) lovely to see!!
I haven’t bitten with it yet, because the gums are so sore! They feel really bruised, so it may be a few days.
 
The colour does look a smidgeon off to me, but not bad, matching a single incisor is always a huge challenge.
Give it a few days till it all settles in and then see how you like it. Bear in mind that natural teeth aren't always the same shade anyway, my 2 central incisors are markedly different from each other.

Chances are most people other than dentists won't give it a second glance :)
Thanks. The color does bother me quite a bit so I will bring it up at my appointment in two weeks. The dentist wasn’t satisfied with the color either but he said we could fix it later. He wanted me to give it a few weeks to see how the gums looked first. He also said that my other teeth were dehydrated from having my mouth open so long and it may look better in a few hours, but I think it actually looked worse once I got home.
It is funny because my original tooth was darker and I was used to it.
My dentist was very concerned about getting the tooth in since my other teeth were shifting so much. My flipper was barely fitting in anymore. The tooth was having to fit in front of the space rather than in it.
 
Really glad they were able to get you in to get this done in the midst of all this craziness! I hope it settles and you can bite on it in a bit :). The last crown I got was also a smidgeon off with color it seemed grayish to me.. and my dentist even said it was off as well and offered to redo it.. same as yours.. well.. i had just been through so many temps and appts so said not right now.. lets just leave it.. and he said whenever I wanted he will redo it.. so I just kept with that.. hopefully he will remember this or have wrote it down.. hope you can now get a little breather :)
 
I suppose it’s not an option right now, but if your dentist uses a (relatively) local lab, it may be possible to go there for a shade match? Once things have improved on the coronavirus front of course.
 
I suppose it’s not an option right now, but if your dentist uses a (relatively) local lab, it may be possible to go there for a shade match? Once things have improved on the coronavirus front of course.
I know there isn’t one that close, because we live in a rural area. Last time the shade was off, he took a picture of my teeth to send with it. I will have to ask him. At least the tooth is in, so my teeth won’t shift more, and the gums can be adjusting in the meantime. I would be willing to drive, though, to get the right shade. I will bring that up to him at my next appointment.
 
It doesn’t look bad to me I mean you really have to look. Im so glad you finally got it though ?
 
It doesn’t look bad to me I mean you really have to look. Im so glad you finally got it though ?
Thanks. It looks worse in different lighting. I am really not liking it the more I see it in the mirror. Even my husband, who originally said it wasn’t that different is now saying it looks very different in natural light. At least I have one in now, though, and hopefully the dentist will switch it out once all the covid-19 restrictions are over. I go back in in the 20th for him to check the gums, so I will bring it up. I also want to ask him about the abutment. My gums above the tooth are still dark. At my last appointment, when he tried the first tooth, he said he was going to ask the lab to make a zirconia abutment because he didn’t like that my gums looked dark. I am wondering if they didn’t do that.
 
I once had a patient who was quite a successful model. After a lot of to-ing and fro-ing, my crown guy and I finally made her a crown that looked best in studio lighting, if it looked good in daylight they looked "off" in studio lights, she decided that she didn't mind so much how it looked in daylight :)

Sorry, just a rambling anecdote!
 
I once had a patient who was quite a successful model. After a lot of to-ing and fro-ing, my crown guy and I finally made her a crown that looked best in studio lighting, if it looked good in daylight they looked "off" in studio lights, she decided that she didn't mind so much how it looked in daylight :)

Sorry, just a rambling anecdote!
That is interesting though. I had wondered if it is possible to get it to look right in both natural light and artificial light. I think I would prefer natural light though.
 
I remember thinking it was weird when I got my last 2 crowns together with my previous dentist he had me go into different rooms with different sun levels to look at the crown, then looked while I was sitting up and lying down. That is the most thorough light testing I've ever had on crowns :p. and they are my favorite crowns by far too
 
I remember thinking it was weird when I got my last 2 crowns together with my previous dentist he had me go into different rooms with different sun levels to look at the crown, then looked while I was sitting up and lying down. That is the most thorough light testing I've ever had on crowns :p. and they are my favorite crowns by far too
I may ask to do that if I can get it remade. The hard part is that it has to be held in place on the abutment while looking at it. This last time, he had me bite down on a cotton roll to hold it in place and look in a mirror while I was laying down. When I sat up it moved slightly and didn’t look right with the gums anyway.
 
I worked for a dentist in Glasgow once and when I came into work on the Monday morning I discovered he had painted my surgery bright yellow over the weekend... it was nice and cheery but it made picking shades for crowns etc really tricky!

Getting the shade right is a real art form, the little shade guides we use in the surgery don't necessarily perfectly match up with the various different porcelain powders that the labs are using, then all porcelain crowns are slightly translucent so are affected by the colour of the tooth underneath or the colour of the cement we glue them in with.
The 'texture' of the finished porcelain has an effect on the way it looks too, and since each crown is hand made and built up from porcelain powders, they can vary from crown to crown.

I always got my nurse to double check shades with me since women have much better colour vision than men do. This had the added advantage of giving me somebody else to blame if we got it wrong :thumbsup:

Actually looking at all that, it's amazing that any of the damn things look good at all...
 
I worked for a dentist in Glasgow once and when I came into work on the Monday morning I discovered he had painted my surgery bright yellow over the weekend... it was nice and cheery but it made picking shades for crowns etc really tricky!

Getting the shade right is a real art form, the little shade guides we use in the surgery don't necessarily perfectly match up with the various different porcelain powders that the labs are using, then all porcelain crowns are slightly translucent so are affected by the colour of the tooth underneath or the colour of the cement we glue them in with.
The 'texture' of the finished porcelain has an effect on the way it looks too, and since each crown is hand made and built up from porcelain powders, they can vary from crown to crown.

I always got my nurse to double check shades with me since women have much better colour vision than men do. This had the added advantage of giving me somebody else to blame if we got it wrong :thumbsup:

Actually looking at all that, it's amazing that any of the damn things look good at all...
Wow, I had no idea it was so complicated! Mine is zirconia. Is that done the same as porcelain?
 
I have my two favorite crowns in my whole mouth which are zirconia which my angel dentist did and so thoroughly looking at all those factors as in previous post.. well. the next crown I wanted to match.. so went to the same lab asked for the same color as they had it specially made as I went in and they matched the color, took pics of my teeth etc, and noted it all. well. I got back the last crown and it looked grayish, I was so disappointed. come to find out. it was zirconia or porcelin over metal , I forgot already,:(. or something like this, so.. showed a little grayer :(. thankfully its further back in my mouth. He did say they would do it over whenever I wanted.
 
I have my two favorite crowns in my whole mouth which are zirconia which my angel dentist did and so thoroughly looking at all those factors as in previous post.. well. the next crown I wanted to match.. so went to the same lab asked for the same color as they had it specially made as I went in and they matched the color, took pics of my teeth etc, and noted it all. well. I got back the last crown and it looked grayish, I was so disappointed. come to find out. it was zirconia or porcelin over metal , I forgot already,:(. or something like this, so.. showed a little grayer :(. thankfully its further back in my mouth. He did say they would do it over whenever I wanted.
My back two zirconia implant crowns are not quite the same color as my other teeth but they don’t show, and it doesn’t bother me.
 
Zirconia crowns are milled from a solid block of material, slightly different process to normal crowns. The factors affecting the shade are similar though.
 
The zirconia crown can be cut back and then layer porcelain and stains on top to enhance the aesthetics.
As to seating the crown the gum does have a tendency to push on it but if you have a full contour temporary then the gum is already shaped for the final crown. This is how I make my anterior cases. It is considerably more work though.
 
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