Q.
I fell ill after returning from Afghanistan and collapsed, smashing my face off a wall. I lost one of my front teeth as a result and the others around it are cracked but have no functionality problems. I really liked my teeth before and had never had any work done on them – not even a filling. I’m 27 and having had root canal work done on the badly damaged tooth I now have a porcelain crown on the front tooth. The dentist and lab were very good and the tooth went back at least six times before the colour was good enough. It is a full porcelain crown made privately but the dentist was not a cosmetic one. The lab technician said that in 40 years he’d never seen anyone with such an unusual colour of teeth. The problem is that they are slightly translucent with a grey/yellow tinge and lots of white patches and layers that you can almost see through in places so they have found it hard to replicate exactly. In natural light the crown looks quite good but in any type of artifical light it looks greyer and darker than the other one and I’m finding myself covering my mouth when I laugh or smile. I’ve been led to believe that I have a strange colour of teeth and that this is probably the best it will ever be. Should I see a cosmetic dentist and risk spending even more money for something that might not be any better? Am I chasing the impossible? Or are there other options? Thanks.,