What are the Differences Between Dental Veneers and Crowns?

By | November 8, 2011

Who doesn’t wish to have an aesthetic dental appeal? Though you are suffering from a crooked, broken or discolored teeth, you can resolve them and get back the beautiful look of your teeth. Dental veneers and crowns are some of the excellent treatment options for them. However, many people get confused of the two solutions.

Dental veneers and crowns differ mainly in the amount of a tooth’s surface that covers the dental restoration. Dental crowns cover the entire tooth whereas the veneers only encase front side of a tooth, usually the side which shows when the person smiles. Certain other differences are there between veneers and crowns which you have to know. Dental veneers are mostly used for patients having tooth structure which is basically strong and healthy. Also, they can be repaired even if they are discolored, gapped, misshaped, or crooked teeth. The veneers only cover the front part of the tooth, and hence, there is no need to reduce much of the tooth. Whereas dental crowns are often used to repair the teeth that are chronically broken or decayed. While the dental veneers are opted by considering the aesthetics, the dental crowns are opted to improve the structural view of the teeth.

Veneers and crowns not only differ in physical appearance, but also on their relative thickness. Dental veneers are just 1mm in thickness where as crowns are 2mm in thickness. Another difference between them is their strength. Veneers are very brittle and cannot be fitted for teeth with grinding and chewing work. But, dental crowns are very strong. They are even specially designed for teeth performing chewing and grinding. Several factors like the amount of color and shape, the dental work will change for a tooth. Extent of tooth damage and the amount of trimming or reduction of tooth determine the choice of dental veneers or crowns.