I am at a loss at how to proceed with my daughter’s teeth. We were trying to straighten this all out before my daughter left for college. It has been a nightmare. Her school ended up going virtual because of COVID-19 which, in a crazy way, was a blessing because we’re still dealing with these two teeth. One tooth had a root canal treatment and crown. This tooth started turning dark. Our dentist suggested doing porcelain veneers on both front teeth so they could match. We agreed. When they first came in, they didn’t match at all and he agreed to re-do them. He put back on her temporaries and we waited again. The second go-round wasn’t much better but he has already bonded them on. One tooth is much grayer than the other and the one that isn’t gray sticks out more than the other. He thinks he can move that back some but says there is nothing that can be done about the gray tooth because of the dark tooth underneath, but that is why we came in the first place. Am I being unreasonable? [photos enclosed]
Maggie
Dear Maggie,
No, you are not being unreasonable. In addition, your dentist has been less than honest. Are you sure he said porcelain veneers? What he provided your daughter isn’t veneers, but porcelain crowns.
As you can see from the picture on the left, porcelain veneers are thin wafers of porcelain. They do not require your teeth to be ground down the way your daughter’s teeth were. Plus, that one tooth already had a crown. He would replace a crown with a crown. The nub that is left of the original tooth would be too small for a veneer.
I think the biggest problem here is your dentist is in over his head. Matching a single porcelain crown to a front tooth is quite difficult. Because of that, many inexperienced cosmetic dentists will tell their patients they need to do two in order to get them to match. That is what your dentist attempted to do, but because of the root canal, he wasn’t even able to do that. Additionally, the difference in depth of the two crowns is also unacceptable.
Under normal circumstances, I’d tell you to insist your dentist re-do this and get it right. However, I don’t think your dentist will be able to. I want you to just ask for a refund. It shouldn’t be too hard to get because he lied about the procedure.
Once you’ve secured your refund, I want you to look for an AACD accredited dentist. These are the best cosmetic dentists and have proven artistry and skill. They’ll be able to give her two porcelain crowns that match. They will even know the techniques to get the grayer tooth to look white as well.
This blog is brought to you by Hilton Head Cosmetic Dentist Dr. Bonnie Rothwell.
