Name the complaint precisely
A general wish for a better smile cannot be planned against. A specific one can. The color has yellowed with age. One tooth is set behind its neighbor. There is a chip on an edge that catches your lip. A dark line shows at the gum on an old crown. The gum line is uneven on one side.
Each of those has a different answer, and some of the answers cost no enamel at all. The reason this matters is that enamel does not grow back, so every plan should start with the least invasive option that would genuinely solve the thing that bothers you.
Veneers and crowns are not interchangeable
They get talked about together and they are quite different propositions. This is the comparison people most often need.
| Consideration | Porcelain veneers | Porcelain crowns |
|---|---|---|
| What it covers | The front surface and usually the biting edge. | The whole tooth, all the way around. |
| Why you would choose it | Appearance, on a tooth that is structurally sound. | Structure first. A tooth that is cracked, heavily filled or root canal treated. |
| Enamel removed | Some, from the front. Permanent, which is why it deserves thought. | More, from every surface. |
| What tends to go wrong | Chipping at an edge under heavy bite forces, especially with grinding. | Decay at the margin, or fracture of the tooth underneath. |
| Where to read more | Porcelain veneers | Porcelain crowns |
Things that change the plan
These come up at examination and they are the reason a plan made from photographs alone is unreliable.
- Grinding or clenching, which shortens the life of thin porcelain and often means a night guard belongs in the plan. More on jaw problems.
- Existing crowns or fillings on front teeth, which will not respond to whitening and have to be planned around.
- Untreated gum inflammation, because tissue moves as it settles and the margins of new work would end up in the wrong place.
- Crowding, where moving the teeth may be a more conservative answer than covering them.
- The shape of your lip and how much tooth actually shows when you speak, which decides more about the result than the shade does.
The route from Mariposa
Highway 49 runs southeast out of Mariposa through the hills and comes into Oakhurst, where it meets Highway 41. Road 426 branches off in town. It is one road most of the way, which makes the timing easy to predict once you have done it once.
All of it happens at one address, 49414 Road 426 in Oakhurst. There is no second location, and the hours are Monday to Wednesday 8:30 am to 5:00 pm and Thursday 7:30 am to 4:00 pm.
The clinical detail without the travel notes is on the cosmetic dentistry page. Everything else written for this community is on the Mariposa page.