When learning you need a dental crown to protect a vulnerable tooth, you may be concerned that you’ll be forced to wear a metal restoration that creates a spotlight on your dental work. Fortunately, advancements in dentistry and newer materials now make it possible to create more aesthetically pleasing, natural-looking crowns. But how can your dentist match them to look just like regular teeth? Keep reading to find out.
What Components Are Required to Select the Right Shade?
There are several steps dentists must take to ensure that your newly created crown blends in seamlessly with the rest of your smile. They must also use various instruments, one of the most common being a shade guide.
Before getting into the details of how the correct color is chosen, it’s important to identify the various components your dentist is looking at when preparing to select the desired shade for your dental crown. The shade consists of hue, chroma, and value.
- Hue: This is the same thing as color and is often yellow, gray, or red.
- Chroma: This is the intensity of the hue.
- Value: This is how light or dark the shade is.
To determine these components, a dentist will use a shade guide, which is a small card that includes artificial porcelain teeth in various shades.
What is the Process a Dentist Will Use to Select a Shade?
During the selection process, your dentist will use a shade guide and hold it up near your teeth. This will give them a good comparison between your natural tooth color and one of the artificial examples.
After identifying the value, they will move on to determine the hue and chroma. This can be a bit trickier and require some additional help. In many cases, dentists will inquire from other colleagues to receive a second or third opinion. This is often beneficial, as the eyes can play tricks when looking at a particular shade for too long.
This is often why a dentist might suggest that you wear a gray bib, remove any makeup, and avoid wearing brightly colored clothes to your appointment.
Once our dentist identifies the correct shade, they will include it in their notes so that lab technicians will know what to use when creating your new, custom-made dental crown. The results you will receive will match your existing smile almost identically, giving you the seamless look you deserve.
While it can take time for a dentist to determine the ideal shade of your restoration, it is always better that they do not rush the process, as you will receive a more beautiful and natural-looking smile in the end.
About the Practice
The team at Indy Dental Group in Indianapolis is here to ensure your restorative dental crowns look and feel their best. Our talented experts have a keen eye for detail and will go to great lengths to make sure that your smile looks uniform and beautifully blended. If you have questions about the color-matching process, contact us at (317) 846-6125.