Dental veneers and crowns are both effective ways of improving the appearance and health of your teeth. However, they are very different types of dental treatments and are appropriate in different circumstances.
Before undergoing either of the two, it will be best to know what is the most appropriate procedure based from your personal perspective. As patients, you should at least have a clear understanding of the difference between dental veneers and crowns.
Dental Veneers
If you want to hide tooth discoloration or damage or reduce spacing between teeth, veneers could be the right solution for you. Veneers are shells of porcelain or resin that fit over your teeth. They not only make your teeth more attractive; they can also help protect their surfaces.
One major advantage of veneers over crowns is they are minimally invasive and the materials used can closely blend among your healthy teeth. Veneers also require only a small layer of the tooth’s surface to be removed in order to fit in and because of the nature of the procedure, veneers are usually used for:
- Small cracks and pitting chipped teeth and other minor surface damages.
- Dental discoloration that does not react to whitening.
- Tooth gaps and misalignment between teeth.
Although placement of dental veneers can dramatically improve the confidence in your smile and keep your teeth healthy, they are a temporary solution and must be replaced after five or ten years.
Porcelain or Composite Resin Veneers?
Both treatments can bring back that beautiful smile however, in terms of cost, strength and longevity porcelain and composite resin veneers could offer solutions for different situations. Applying composite resin is relatively faster and only takes hours.
The material lasts for about 5-8 years but requires some maintenance because they chip. The big advantage of composite resin is it costs about half of porcelain veneers. Porcelains are more durable and could last a maximum of 20-25 years.
The material is highly resistive to stain and rarely require check-ups for maintenance. Although both treatments offer awesome esthetic results, consulting a dentist is the best way to choose between the two.
Crowns and Bridges
For a more permanent solution that will correct more severe damage, including problems caused by missing teeth, consider crowns and bridges.
A crown supports the structure of a broken or damaged tooth. Unlike a veneer, which covers only the front of a tooth, a crown covers the entire tooth. If you need a filling but you don’t have enough tooth structure left, you may need to have the tooth restored with a crown.
While veneers will eventually require replacement, crowns are permanently cemented onto your teeth. A bridge is used when you are missing a tooth or need to have a tooth extracted. The bridge replaces the missing tooth.
Bridges and crowns can be important for your dental health. If you have extra space in your mouth because of a missing tooth, the remaining teeth can shift around, and this can cause you to have problems with biting and chewing, causing damage to your other teeth. In the long run, crowns can save you money by preventing the loss of more teeth.
A crown can be made of metal, semiprecious metal, porcelain or metal fused with porcelain. The crowns we fabricate at our office are of the highest quality.
Dentures
If you are missing any teeth, you might prefer dentures rather than crowns. Unlike crowns, dentures are not permanently affixed to your teeth. You can take your dentures out of your mouth and put them back in by yourself.
You must remove your dentures from your mouth to clean them. Crowns and veneers, on the other hand, stay in your mouth all the time. You clean them by brushing and flossing, just as you would clean your natural teeth.
