Khai Nguyen Dental Lab would like to thank Dr Mai Tran and the team at Duc Nhan Dental for their trust and for sharing an interesting clinical case.
A single crown between two natural teeth
This case was a single IPS e.max crown on an upper anterior tooth, sitting between natural teeth on both sides. It sounds simple, and it is the hardest group of cases there is in esthetic terms.
The reason is that there is nowhere to hide an error. On a full arch, the lab sets its own reference for shade and form and applies it across the whole arch. On a single unit, the reference is already sitting next to it: the natural neighbours. The restoration has to match them on base shade, incisal translucency, cervical saturation, form, and even how the surface catches light. Miss any one of those and it shows immediately.
What the lab had to do
The case demanded maximum precision to secure marginal fit and to produce a result that reads continuously with the adjacent teeth. The technician works from the clinician’s shade photographs, builds form from the contralateral tooth, and finishes the surface so that the new crown is neither brighter nor duller than the two natural teeth beside it.
What we take from this case
A single anterior crown is the best test of a laboratory there is. If you want to assess the esthetic capability of a new partner, sending a case like this tells you far more than sending a full arch.
The condition is that the shade photographs have to be good. Images taken with the shade tab in frame, under consistent lighting, from both a straight and an angled view, help the lab enormously.
See Emax CAD, or contact our team to send a trial case.
Written for dentists and technicians. Khai Nguyen Dental Lab manufactures to clinical prescription only and does not sell directly to patients.
