Dental Veneers or Dental Crowns: Which Are Right for You?

Teeth are extremely durable, but they’re hardly immune from damage, and often, we behave in harmful ways to our teeth without even knowing it. For example, the foods and beverages you consume could help or harm your teeth. While calcium-rich foods like dairy products work to strengthen teeth, ingredients like sugar and acid in soda can weaken enamel, feed bacteria, and lead to tooth decay.

Although our teeth can be damaged by cracks, chips, staining, and decay, there are a variety of dental solutions designed to meet both your functional and cosmetic needs, protecting your teeth from further harm and restoring your smile simultaneously. Sometimes, these treatment options can also correct issues like crowding, gaps, and uneven edges.

The question is: are veneers or crowns a better option when facing these smile snafus? Which solution is right for you? Here are a few things you’ll want to consider.

Coverage

Veneers and crowns are potential solutions to dental issues like damage or cosmetic concerns. Still, a few key differences will help determine the better option case-by-case basis. One of those differences is the amount of coverage each option provides.

Crowns offer significantly more coverage than veneers. One of the major selling points of veneers is how thin they are, generally less than a millimeter in thickness. This allows patients to retain the vast majority of any tooth covered. However, the enamel will have to be etched to allow for the best adhesion or bonding of the veneer material to the tooth. In addition, veneers are only applied to the outward-facing surface of the tooth or the portion visible when smiling.

On the other hand, crowns are much thicker (often 2 millimeters or more) and cover both the front and back surface of the tooth, providing for greater strength and coverage. This may require a significant portion of the tooth to be tapered down so that the crown doesn’t add so much bulk that the final product is too large to fit with other teeth.

To preserve a natural appearance and a normal bite pattern, much of the natural tooth will have to be removed to make space for the crown to fit. However, because the material of the crown is so thick, it acts as the new outer layer of the tooth, ensuring that whatever remains of the natural tooth is protected and that the patient can chew normally and smile with confidence.

With proper care, veneers should last ten years or more. On the other hand, crowns could last anywhere from about 5-15 years and often even longer. In some cases,

dental insurance will cover crown replacement after the minimum estimated life of the product has elapsed (say, five years). If veneers are considered a cosmetic procedure rather than a dental necessity, they may not be covered by insurance, but it could depend on the policy and the patient’s situation.

The severity of Damage or Cosmetic Concern

Another factor determining whether a crown or veneers are right for you is the severity of the situation. More severe cases will often require a crown. In terms of damage, this could depend upon the amount of enamel remaining.

Adequate enamel is essential to creating the etched surface needed for the proper adhesion of veneers. If the enamel is too worn, you may have to accept that a crown is the better option. Also, if a significant portion of the tooth is missing, wafer-thin veneers won’t provide the strength needed for practical concerns like chewing food.

The severity of cosmetic issues can also dictate whether veneers or crowns are more appropriate. Veneers are likely a better choice for minor misalignment, uneven edges, or staining because they allow for more of the natural tooth to be preserved. Teeth that are relatively healthy and undamaged are the best candidates for veneers.

However, veneers are unlikely to do the trick if teeth are severely rotated, overlapped, or separated by gaps. The amount of natural tooth that can be removed, paired with the thicker, more robust surface offered by crowns, makes this option the obvious choice if the patient isn’t keen to wear braces for the next couple of years to correct the problem.