Crowns and veneers are popular restorative dentistry solutions that enhance tooth appearance and functionality. Each of these methods has its pros and cons, and the dentist must consider these factors before recommending the most suitable procedure. Additionally, the treatments differ, each having been proven and tested. If you want to improve your smile and tooth functionality, here are the differences between crowns and veneers, along with their advantages and disadvantages, to help you select the most suitable treatment for your restorative needs.

Dental Crowns vs Veneers

A crown is a two-millimeter-thick tooth restoration that provides complete coverage of the entire visible side of a damaged tooth, reinforcing a weakened tooth and improving aesthetics. On the other hand, a veneer is an ultra-thin layer or shell made of porcelain or another material that is attached to the front surface of the tooth to improve its appearance. Dental veneers address oral issues such as:

  • Tooth discoloration

  • Spaces between teeth

  • Minor misalignment

  • Crooked teeth

  • Tooth decay or weakening

  • Tooth chipping, cracking, or fracturing

Veneers and crowns have unique features, and understanding these differences is critical in selecting the right transformative solution for your teeth.

Structural Coverage

The primary difference between veneers and crowns is in the structural coverage. Veneers are one-millimeter-thick shells designed only to cover the imperfections on the anterior tooth surface. When you opt for veneers, only a small surface of the enamel on the front of the tooth is removed to enable the proper fitting of the veneer. The inner side of the tooth that faces the tongue remains untouched. Therefore, when you want to preserve the natural structure of your teeth, the dentist will recommend veneers over crowns.

Apart from preserving the structural integrity of the tooth, veneers enhance tooth appearance by covering imperfections such as minor misalignment, tooth crookedness, discoloration, and irregularities. The shells only conceal tooth flaws, meaning that even if they improve tooth appearance, they do not reinforce weakened teeth like dental crowns.

Crowns provide extensive structural coverage and are placed on the entire visible section of a damaged tooth. In addition to enhancing tooth aesthetics, crowns strengthen the structural integrity of weakened teeth and protect the surrounding natural teeth from damage. Doctors recommend crowns for severe dental issues, such as extensive tooth damage, severe tooth decay, or for patients who have undergone a root canal procedure. The outer layer of the cap shields the underlying affected tooth from further damage, while the reinforcement restores the tooth’s functionality.

Application Differences

Another distinction between crowns and veneers is in the manner in which they are applied.

Veneers Application Process

Veneers focus more on concealing dental flaws, making these restorations more cosmetic in nature. You can only place them on healthy teeth with minor flaws that do not compromise the structural integrity of a tooth. Therefore, before undergoing a veneer application procedure, you must undergo a consultation to establish your candidacy for the treatment. The process you undergo to receive dental veneers includes:

Comprehensive Tooth Evaluation

First, you must schedule an appointment with your dentist to evaluate the health of your teeth and gums. Additionally, your dental expert will ask about your aesthetic expectations. Veneers are suitable for minor tooth flaws. Therefore, you need healthy teeth and intact tooth enamel to be a candidate for veneers. If the teeth have chips, fractures, or are misaligned, these problems must be minor. Otherwise, if the enamel is not intact, the treatment may not be successful, and you may need to explore alternatives, such as dental crowns. Also, the gums or soft tissue surrounding the affected tooth must be healthy.

Veneers are suitable when you seek small changes in tooth color or shape. If the dentist identifies small gaps between teeth, minor misalignment or crooked teeth, or stains, you may be a candidate for veneer application. When these restorations are placed on your teeth, the results are immediate, making them ideal for enhancing your appearance.

Minimal Trimming

Dental veneers are minimally invasive because they only involve minimal trimming or preparation of the existing tooth. The dentist only removes one millimeter of existing enamel to allow for bonding on the shell, preserving most of the tooth’s enamel. The trimming happens on the anterior of the tooth, leaving the natural tooth structurally sound.

Picking a Veneer Color

After tooth preparation, the next step is to select a color of the veneer material that closely mimics the adjacent natural tooth. If several teeth are involved, the dentist will treat them and may need to adjust the shade to ensure a perfect blend with the adjacent ones. Dentists recommend bleaching the surrounding teeth before selecting a color so that the new shade of the adjacent teeth can be used to match the color of your veneers. When selecting the color, you should take into account the translucency of the restoration, because if the veneer is transparent, the flaws you were attempting to hide will be visible through the mouth.

Taking Impressions

The next step is to take an impression of the trimmed teeth to use as a blueprint for fabricating the permanent veneers. The dentist loads a dental tray with mold and places it on your teeth. After a few minutes, the mold builds up around the teeth, capturing the complex dimensions and shade of the prepped teeth. The impressions are then sent to a dental lab for fabrication.

While you await the final veneers, you will need temporary restorations to protect your teeth and maintain a beautiful appearance.

Final Bonding

When your veneers return from the dental lab, you will be scheduled for a follow-up appointment. Here, they fit the permanent restorations to ensure a good fit. If they do not achieve a perfect fit, the dentist can make a few adjustments until a perfect fit is achieved.

If the veneers fit properly on the teeth, the dentist will bond them to the trimmed tooth surfaces with a special adhesive. The dentist removes the excess cement, and the veneer becomes part of your tooth structure.

Following the final placement is a follow-up appointment, which typically occurs a few weeks later. During this meeting, the dentist examines your gums for inflammation and checks to ensure that the veneers are firmly bonded to the anterior tooth surface.

Dental Caps or Crowns Application

The steps for receiving dental crowns are as follows:

  1. Initial Consultation

Before undergoing dental crown placement, the dentist must evaluate your teeth to determine that you are a candidate for the procedure. Dental experts suggest the use of crowns for patients with severe tooth damage. While crowns enhance tooth aesthetics, they also reinforce the natural tooth's structure, restoring normal functionality. If, during examination, the dentist comes across severely decayed, fractured, or broken teeth, they will recommend dental crowns to restore and transform the teeth.

If the posterior teeth are affected, where a lot of grinding takes place, the dentist will recommend molars because their crowns can handle the force used during biting. A dentist will rarely recommend veneers for back teeth because they focus more on improving aesthetics than reinforcing the tooth.

  1. Tooth Trimming or Preparation

Unlike veneers, dental caps require extensive trimming, making this treatment invasive. If you want to preserve the structure of your natural teeth, crowns might not be the best option because you will lose significant enamel to tooth preparation. Crowns must cover the complete teeth up to the gum margins. This requires trimming all sides of the tooth to ensure the cap sits perfectly.

When extensive trimming is required, the dentist will administer local anesthesia to ensure your comfort.

  1. Taking an Impression

Once the perfect tooth shape and size are achieved, the dentist will use a dental tray loaded with putty to make an impression of the existing teeth. They retain the tray around the mouth for a few minutes to allow the putty to form around the teeth, creating impressions whose dimensions are used by dental lab technicians to fabricate the final crowns. Additionally, your dental expert can use a gingival retraction cord when taking the impression to pull the gums back, ensuring the impression captures even the lower areas of the prepped tooth. Providing the fabricator with a clear picture of the gum margins and the root of the tooth is critical for precise fabrication.

  1. Fabrication of Temporary Crowns

A significant amount of the enamel is removed during tooth preparation, leaving the tooth susceptible to sensitivity or fracturing due to the weakened structure. Fabrication can take one to two weeks, depending on the dental lab your dentist chooses. In the meantime, your dental expert places a temporary cap on the tooth to keep the adjacent ones from shifting or the gums from growing above the trimmed tooth.

Temporary crowns are made from acrylic resin, which is loaded into a dental tray and then placed around the prepped teeth. The resin material forms around the trimmed teeth within a few minutes, allowing the dentist to remove the tray. The resin material surrounding the trimmed tooth is reshaped to remove the sharp edges before being bonded to the tooth. The dentist repeats this step for each tooth. Before you can go home, the dentist will check your bite to ensure the temporary restorations fit well.

  1. Cementing the Permanent Crown

When the final restoration is ready, you will return for another appointment, where the dentist will remove the temporary crowns and replace them with the permanent ones. Before cementing the permanent crown, the dentist thoroughly cleans the tooth and fits the crown to ensure it fits snugly around the tooth as desired. If the crown leaves a large gap between it and the adjacent tooth, it means food debris could be trapped in the space, exposing you to other dental complications. Leaving small spaces between the dental crown and the adjacent tooth can also make it difficult to clean, making you susceptible to oral conditions that develop due to poor hygiene. The dentist must adjust the crown to ensure it fits perfectly and achieves a natural appearance with proper tooth spacing.

If your dental expert is satisfied that the crown envelops the trimmed tooth in the desired way, they will cement it onto the tooth. They will then remove the excess cement. As they await the cement to settle, the dentist will examine the teeth and bite before allowing you to leave.

Caring for crowns can be complicated, so the dentist will share post-procedure instructions to help you with aftercare. Additionally, they will schedule a follow-up appointment to inspect the progress you have made with the treatment.

Material Choices

Another significant distinction between crowns and veneers is in the choice of materials. With veneers' focus being cosmetic, the common materials to choose from are porcelain and composite.

Porcelain veneers are popular because they have ultra-thin shells that mimic the translucency of natural teeth. If you are looking for a radiant smile, the ability of porcelain material to reflect and refract light makes this material a perfect choice.

The other veneer material to choose from is composite resin. With composite, you only need a single visit to the dentist, where they cement the composite resin material to the tooth and harden it with a special light. After, the dentist reshapes the material to achieve the perfect shape and size of the tooth. The advantage of composite material is that you need a single visit, as no fabrication is required; however, the material is not as durable as porcelain. If you are working on a budget, composite material is the most suitable choice for achieving the desired outcome.

Crowns enhance both the appearance and functionality of teeth. Therefore, material choices are distinct from those of veneers, enabling them to achieve the desired goal. With these goals in mind, you can choose porcelain crowns, as they strike a balance between beauty and strength. Porcelain crowns are suitable for front teeth because the material mirrors the shade of natural teeth, resulting in a flawless smile. Their strength reinforces the tooth, improving functionality. Therefore, when you seek both improved appearance and functionality, go for porcelain veneers.

The other dental crown material is a metal alloy. These crowns are made of gold or alloys of stainless steel. Other than that, they are not aesthetically appealing, as they do not mimic the color of natural teeth; they are highly durable and strong. If you want crowns for molars or any other teeth where a lot of force is applied in biting or grinding, you can choose metal crowns. Their resilience will enhance teeth functionality but harm aesthetics.

Another crown material is porcelain-fused-to-metal (PFM). The properties of metal are strength and durability, while porcelain offers a good appearance. Fusing porcelain with metal combines all these properties, making PFM crowns both strong and durable while also being aesthetically appealing.

When you compare materials for crowns and veneers, you will notice the distinguishing factors in material choice are aesthetics, resilience, and tooth preparations. Since veneers are appearance-oriented, the porcelain used in veneers has a great ability to enhance the natural color of the teeth. The dental crowns, on the other hand, must strike a balance between structural soundness and aesthetic appeal. The porcelain crowns achieve this balance between strength and beauty.

Dental crowns reinforce weak teeth, restoring functionality. Choosing metal alloys or PFM crowns allows you to pursue strengths that veneers do not prioritize, as their primary purpose is to enhance aesthetics.

Another distinctive feature regarding the material used is the tooth preparation. With veneers, minimal preparation is required for the final restoration, whereas crowns require extensive trimming of the tooth to accommodate the thick material used to make them.

The Cost

Veneers and crowns also differ in terms of treatment cost. Your goal and choice of materials determine the cost. Conventional dental crowns are more expensive, as they require extensive molding and use materials that are also costly, given their substantial structural coverage. The materials must provide strength and beauty simultaneously, meaning you must dig deeper into your pockets. Moreover, the quantity of the material will be higher since the space being covered is large. Consequently, this increases the cost of the material.

On the other hand, veneers are a cosmetic treatment that only involves covering the front part of the tooth. They require less material and hence will not cost as much as a crown.

Regardless of the type of restorative work, the variables that determine the cost of the treatment include the material used, the number of teeth involved, and any additional procedures required.

Whether your dental insurance policy provides coverage for your procedure also affects costs. Since veneers are purely cosmetic, you may be required to pay the entire cost out-of-pocket, making the treatment more expensive than crowns. Some dental crown procedures are covered by insurance, meaning you only pay a portion of the cost, helping you save money. When estimating the cost of your procedure, call your insurer to establish if they cover your treatment and the percentage they are willing to cover.

Benefits and Disadvantages of Crowns

The advantages of dental crowns are:

  • They are durable

  • Offer material versatility

  • Highly durable

  • They restore tooth functionality

However, crowns have several risks. You may develop an allergic reaction to the crown material and be prone to tooth sensitivity due to the extensive trimming.

Advantages and Risks of Veneers

Veneers are beneficial because they provide multiple material choices, improve tooth appearance, and preserve the natural tooth structure. However, they only fix minor cosmetic issues and are prone to tooth sensitivity due to the trimming process.

Find an Experienced Restorative Dental Expert Near Me

Crowns and dental veneers are popular transformative dental solutions. They restore a flawless smile and tooth functionality. When planning to restore your damaged teeth and considering crowns or veneers, you should consult a seasoned dental expert for guidance. At Anaheim dentist, we will craft a smile that reflects your oral needs, style, and character. Call us at 714-995-4000 to arrange an initial consultation.