My daughter needed a root canal treatment on a front tooth a few years ago. Because the dentist said it wasn’t possible to make a good match between a single dental crown and a front tooth, he suggested we have two dental crowns made so he can be certain they match. As my daughter was only 15, I thought paying the extra for another crown would be worth it for her to have an attractive smile. The results were okay at best. Not attractive. Now the crown for the root canal is developing a graying tint. The dentist said he could replace that crown. But, again, to make them match he’d need to do two. Again I forked out the money. This time it isn’t even okay. The crown for the root canal is an obviously different color and larger than the adjacent tooth. What do I do now? She’s about to go to college and I don’t want her feeling uncomfortable about her smile.

Avery

Dear Avery,

There are a couple of things going on here. The biggest problem is your dentist has zero skills when it comes to cosmetic dentistry. It takes an experienced cosmetic dentist to match a dental crown to a single front tooth. Those who aren’t will usually tell their patients it can’t be done and convince them they need two dental crowns. This not only costs them double the money, but it also means they will lose healthy tooth structure unnecessarily.

Your dentist is, unfortunately, even worse. He couldn’t even match two of them. Here’s what I think happened. He needed to cover the gray tint. To do that he made the dental crown thicker. It didn’t work and now your teeth do not match in either color or size. Dentists like this are the reason we see so many cosmetic dentistry horror stories.

The first thing you need to do is ask for a full refund. There is no excuse for this type of shoddy work. Then, go to a more experienced cosmetic dentist to have this done properly. One way to find one is to look on the mynewsmile.com website. This site lists expert cosmetic dentists by zip code and the distance you are willing to travel. Each of these dentists has been prescreened for both their artistic and technical abilities. They’ll provide you with stunning results.

One thing they’ll probably do is to clean up and bleach the underlying tooth. Then, if there is enough room, they will add an opaquer over the nubbed tooth. This will allow for a more translucent crown, that doesn’t have to be made any thicker than the adjacent crown.

This blog is brought to you by West Seneca Cosmetic Dentist Dr. Warren Krutchick.