Dentistry is now becoming both an art as well as a science. In the 1980's and 90's form and function were the predominant features that both the dentist and the patient were most concerned with. In addition, dental technologies were not as sophisticated as they are today. Dental porcelains did not have the life-like character as they do today and patients really had no choice.
One of the most difficult things to do in dentistry is to match a dental crown to an adjacent tooth in the front of the mouth especially the two central incisors. In fact it is so difficult that many dentist recommend that the patient consider a veneer on the tooth not treated in order to get some type of color match.
Color of the tooth is but one of the many aspects in matching teeth. In fact it "may" be one of the least important. In addition, most teeth have several colors associated with the tooth. The area up by the gum tissue is ... in general... more yellowish. This is due primarily to the underlying yellow dentin showing through the translucent enamel on the tooth. Like wise... the incisal edge of the tooth can appear grayer because the translucent enamel has no backing of yellow dentin and the darkness of the mouth give the edge a gray color.
The following is an example of how we use multiple colors on a tooth as well as irregularities in the surface texture of the tooth and differing translucencies of the tooth. This case highlights the difficulties encountered in designing your smile.How we handle this is to send to the dental laboratory two items. The first is the digital photograph of the tooth showing the:
Overall color of the tooth
Colors in different parts of the tooth
The value of the tooth (relative brightness of the tooth)
Opaqueness of the tooth
Translucency of the tooth
White "lines' in the tooth
White "lines" on the edge of the tooth
Any "other" colors or unique characteristics
The second is to draw attention to the factors described above... we also include a "color map of the tooth. A color map is a drawing of the tooth with the unique characteristics that we found on the tooth that we wish to emphasize to the dental laboratory.
Armed with this information, the dental laboratory will incorporate this in their artistic product. However, understand that this is one of the most difficult endeavors in dentistry. We discuss this with patients and at times the best solution "may" be also doing a veneer on the other central incisor.
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