02/06/2026
Matching a single front tooth……..
Or what we call in dentistry, the “Single Central” which is often touted as one of the most difficult procedures to do in cosmetic dentistry. The reason for this is because despite using excellent master level ceramist and providing incredibly detailed lab communication and professional level photography, even the best will find challenge in perfectly matching one of God’s detailed creations in a way that it becomes seamless in the smile and imperceptible to the social viewer. My patient had been walking around with her previous crown since early adulthood and it had been a huge pain point for her. She jokingly called it her “George Washington tooth” in a way to make light of it because it bothered her so much. She explained to me that her previous dentist had settled on the existing one after trying 5 separate times with his dental laboratory to get it right. I told her that I believed we could do better and started the process creating a hand created digital mockup to show her my plan for the way we’d approach the remake.
After seeing that she decided to proceed and began her journey starting with Invisalign to improve her alignment so we had the best set up for success.
The before photos depict her after the completion of Invisalign with ready to go. The one issue was that the previous crown was made slightly wider than her other front tooth because there existed a small space between the teeth previously. So making this tooth match was a huge challenge in both shade, contour, texture and size. To make it an improvement over her original situation, each aspect had to be done at such a high level that the human eye couldn’t immediately detect it. Something that our eyes and brains are especially good at!
Swipe to see the different versions and how the end result came to be. In the end, I allowed the patient to choose, by reviewing photos and not telling her which was which to avoid any bias. She ended up choosing the one I made in office myself, which was a little light on the translucency so I added a bit more same day. The final result was one we were both very happy with !