Front Tooth Cavities: All-Ceramic Crowns Rather Than Veneers

Hello, I am Park Jonguk, director of Dream Dental Clinic, treating front tooth cavities.

There are many different reasons for treating front teeth aesthetically.

But there is really only one purpose.

Making the teeth beautiful.

For that purpose,

patients undergo veneer or all-ceramic crown treatment.

When a tooth has decayed a lot,

when discoloration is very severe,

when root canal treatment has been done,

or when there is major tooth destruction, meaning a large fracture,

for front tooth cavity treatment,

an all-ceramic crown is done rather than a veneer.

An all-ceramic crown

is a method of covering the entire tooth in ceramic,

similar to how a crown is placed after root canal treatment on a molar —

it is doing crown treatment as front tooth cavity treatment.

"All-ceramic" means the entire crown is made of ceramic;

in the past, because ceramic alone was weak,

crowns were made by placing metal on the inside and

bonding ceramic on top of it,

which reduced translucency and fell short aesthetically.

As strong ceramics were developed,

making the entire crown out of ceramic caused no problems at all,

so nowadays the method that includes metal is almost never used.

When decay is too severe,

sometimes a veneer is done after cavity treatment,

but the likelihood of new decay forming is high,

so an all-ceramic crown can lower the likelihood of decay recurring.

There is decay between the teeth throughout.

The decay had progressed even beneath the gumline,

and toward the inside of the mouth it was even more severe.

From repeated resin treatment,

the destruction of the tooth kept getting worse,

and it was likely that with a few more rounds of treatment,

all four front teeth would probably have needed root canal treatment.

In cases like this,

rather than forcing a veneer,

treating with an all-ceramic crown

is more effective for front tooth cavity treatment

in preventing the long-term recurrence of decay.

We proceed with a diagnosis of the current condition of the teeth.

Treating the decay is important, but

the result must also come out natural and beautiful.

Since the four front teeth had severe decay,

we proceed with all-ceramic crown treatment for those four teeth.

Of course, all the resin from the previous cavity treatment is removed first,

and the re-treatment proceeds from there.

The treatment has been completed.

This is the all-ceramic crown treatment of the four front teeth that had cavity treatment.

Generally, in natural teeth the four front teeth are a bit brighter than the canines,

so when only these four teeth are treated like this,

we make them a bit brighter than the canines.

If we matched the tooth color to the canines instead,

the teeth would end up looking overall too yellow.

The overall proportion of the teeth changes depending on face shape,

and the shape should be matched to the face shape to some degree as well.

Three-dimensionality in the teeth is fundamental to a natural-looking tooth.

While giving sufficient three-dimensionality,

we bring out the translucent layer at the tooth edge

to express young, beautiful-looking teeth.

Another important factor in all-ceramic crowns

is harmony with the gums.

Irritation to the gums must be minimized

so that gum inflammation doesn't develop in the long term.

Of course, ongoing maintenance and

oral hygiene care are also very important.

Natural beauty —

Since 2006, Dream Dental Clinic, front tooth cavity treatment