Have you ever looked at someone’s smile and immediately thought to yourself “Ouch, that tooth sticks out like a sore thumb!”

This tooth was very noticeable. Photo by Dr. Nicholas Calcaterra – dentistry by someone else!

This patient was very uncomfortable with her smile. And she had every right to be uncomfortable (if you want to see how we fixed her smile you can go here).

When we analyze the shades of front teeth, we use what is called the 3-D shade guide. The guide is used by cosmetic dentists and has close to 30 shades. Then, when you factor in other variables such as translucency and light reflection, you get close to fifty shades of teeth!

So how do we achieve dramatic results?

A Match Made in Heaven

Let’s answer the question by looking at some dramatic results with before and after photos:

We bent over backwards to match the shade. Without the pre-op photo, you would not be able to tell which teeth have crowns! Photo and dentistry Dr. Nicholas Calcaterra.

The above patient lives in Orange and is a student at Amity Regional High School. He suffered trauma to his two front teeth with both requiring root canals. One of his teeth was repaired by another office using bonding. The repair – somewhat sloppy – is very noticeable because the shade and contour do not match.

Because of the history of trauma, we did cosmetic all ceramic crowns on both teeth. We worked extremely hard, going through multiple steps (as outlined below), and were able to achieve a remarkable success. We believe the photos speak for themselves.

Shade Matching – A Team Approach

Many of you are probably asking – how do you achieve this?

He began with a very dark crown due to trauma, as seen in the upper left. In the upper right, we hold one of many different shade tabs as part of our analysis. Note that he did NOT want the “tilt” or “midline slant” corrected – only the shade – because he felt that was his signature look! Dentistry and photos Dr. Nicholas Calcaterra.

We take a very rigorous and systematic approach. Some of the steps include:

• We analyze your smile and the teeth/tooth bothering you. We first understand what your concerns are. We then recommend the most appropriate solution.
• Based on your specific needs, we then select one of many Connecticut based labs that we use. We don’t ship our labwork overseas.
• We take multiple photos and sometimes have you meet with a lab technician for a custom shade match.
• We then let you try it in for a test drive – if you don’t like it – we tweak the shade until you are 100% satisfied.

Throughout the process, it is a team approach: our team, the lab, and you.

If you are unhappy with the shade of your crowns and would like to meet with us, call us at (203) 799 – 2929 or visit this page. We’d love to have you experience fifty shades of teeth.