Does Zoom Make it Impossible to Match Dental Work?

Several months ago, I wanted to whiten my teeth with Zoom Whitening. My dentist said he didn’t recommend it and he doesn’t offer it, so I went to find a dentist who did offer Zoom. I had my teeth whitened and felt much better about my smile. I found myself smiling all the time. A couple of weeks ago, I was in a car accident and broke one of my teeth. My dentist has not been able to match the crown to the rest of my teeth. He said this is the problem with Zoom. It makes teeth unnaturally white and makes it impossible to match dental work. Is that true? Will I be stuck with a mismatched smile because I whitened my teeth?

Penelope

Dear Penelope,

I’m glad you wanted to improve your smile and that it lead to your confidence and joy in sharing your smile with others. Let’s get you back there again. The good news is you can absolutely have dental work match your teeth, no matter how white they are. Though, I will warn you that you will probably have to do it with another dentist.

The problem your current dentist has as he is engineering-minded, not aesthetically minded. He has not kept up with the advances in his field, either. This type of mismatch of teeth became quite common when teeth whitening first grew in popularity. Dentists have used the same shade guide for years (shown immediately below)

As teeth whitening started going mainstream dentists were seeing more and more teeth that were whiter than their shade guides. Dental companies started noticing this. And the smart ones quickly updated their shade guides. You can see one example of that below. As you can see the newer shade guide has much whiter shades available.

The Real Need for an Expert Cosmetic Dentist

If it were just a matter of the shade guide, your dentist could just order the new one. But, it is more complicated than that, especially when matching a front tooth. Our teeth aren’t one color all the way across and down. There are variations of opacity and color tones. It takes an excellent cosmetic dentist to do this.

As you can see from this color map, a dentist has to add a variety of tints to different sections of the tooth. It takes a large amount of post-doctoral training to be able to do this.

My suggestion is you look for an AACD accredited cosmetic dentist to do this for you. They will match your crown, make it look natural, and give you a smile you are proud to share once more.

This blog is brought to you by Hilton Head Cosmetic Dentist Dr. Bonnie Rothwell.