How Do Cosmetic Dentist Match Teeth Color And Shape

Dr. Ezra Kantor: Today, we are going to talk about matching the teeth we make to natural teeth. Before we do this, I’d like to… We thought we’d do a little dental humor. We’ll do some dental jokes. And what we’re going to do today is, we’re going to do a limerick, because Dr. Grey is an expert at limericks. So what we’re going to do is, I’m going to start the limerick and then he’s going to go ahead. Okay. Ready? Here it goes. There once was a dentist from Nantucket.

Dr. Grey Kantor: He had a tooth, who could tuck it.

EK: But the tooth was the wrong shade.

GK: It looked a little bit grey.

EK: So he had to tell the patient to go…

GK: I’m not going to answer that.

EK: Okay. I’m going to talk about… There was a lot of truth in that joke because it’s the patient who determines the shade of the tooth. We hold up a sample, and we look at it, and the patient has to pick the shade. A lot of patients say to us, “Well, why don’t you pick it? You’re an expert at this.” Well, we’re not, really. It’s the patient who’s the expert. Again, paid extra. We need the patient to accept it and frequently we like the patient to sign something. It’s about art and as we all know art is subjective. And sometimes a patient is seen in artificial light and sometimes the patient is seen in natural light. And the color of the tooth will change, so we have to determine that.

EK: All of you have watched various shows, television. And these people in show business, they’re under, frequently they’re under intense lighting. In the past, people like Johnny Carson, who was on a show every night that everybody watched and he was under intense lighting and he had all of his teeth and he looked very good on tv, but if you saw him on the street, his teeth would look extremely white and unnatural, but he didn’t care because he was a creature of show business. The shape of the tooth, the form, the way it’s compatible to your lip structure, the way your lip is supported, these are things that we do and will show to you. We don’t expect you to know a lot of these things. We just have to make that. And that compatibility is very important.

GK: One of the hardest things to do is match one tooth in the front, right, just the left tooth, just the right tooth can be very difficult to match. So what we do there is we can sometimes have you go to the lab to match it directly. And that way, we can get a better match there. It’s really hard to just… You’re looking… Two teeth side by side can be a very difficult match, but we’ve gotten pretty good at it over the years, I think. And we can definitely do a good job for you. So if you have anymore questions about matching a crown to your natural tooth or a veneer to your natural tooth, definitely give us a call, we can talk about it here at Kantor Dental Group, we’re located in San Rafael, California, and please subscribe.

EK: There once was a woman from Peru.