Q. I had two porcelain crowns put onto my front teeth at the end of last year to improve their cosmetic appearance. One of them was over a root canal which was about 10 years old. Recently (about 6 months later) the root canalled tooth underneath the crown broke, so that the entire fusion of tooth and crown snapped off near to the gum (aargh!!!) I went back to my dentist, who replaced it with another porcelain crown and a gold post. But when the post was fitted it didn’t look very gold – more dark grey – and it shines through the porcelain so that it looks a darker colour than the tooth next door. For both the first crowns and the subsequent replacement crown I went to the dental lab for shade matching. The new crown is (I think) a really good colour match, it’s just the nasty grey post underneath making it look awful! My dentist says that since the tooth is already root canalled, if the post ever fails I’ll need an implant and that this is the only way it will ever match my other tooth. Are there any other options to achieve a good colour match without having an implant? Should a gold post be a dark grey colour? And if so, why on earth do they not manufacture pale-coloured posts?! (…maybe a non-toxic pale-coloured metal doesn’t exist) Also, isn’t an implant just a permanent post attached to the jaw bone, and therefore won’t it be dark grey-coloured too? Many thanks for your advice.