Not a dentist and have generally had no trouble with my teeth.
But can offer this from someone that struggles with teeth problems.
Don't know what a bridge is vs. just crowns, but know after struggling with multiple teeth problems for years, I encouraged my friend to go for all crowns on the uppers for cosmetic reasons.
Dentist suggested a particular "color" for best match to the lowers but I suggested going with one shade whiter.
I think it turned out to be the right call, a person that hated to smile started getting compliments about the new teeth.
That was 3-4 years ago. Unfortunately, one of the crowns recently came loose and now the solution is an implant (if the bone will hold it). Only about 2 months into a process that will take several months as I understand it, requiring the wearing of a removable temporary "partial" that was described to me as something like a retainer used after orthodontics. This to be worn apparently very uncomfortably until the bone is healed and ready for the implant.
Big disappointment that the crown failed after spending a lot of money (I think it was about $10k). But it was not a problem of the crown, just a continuation of the underlying tooth continuing to crumble (at least as I understand the idea of a crown).
Only reason I'm posting is because of your color question.
From what I remember, there is a limited color selection. Generally what people see is your uppers. For the friend I helped, the dentist "suggested" color choice wasn't an exact match to the lowers. I suggested one shade whiter because I thought that would look best.
I think it was the right call as the finished result looked very nice.
If you also are only getting crowns on the uppers, I'm thinking you are being unduly concerned about the match to your natural lowers.
Only difference, sounds like your dentist made the color choice without offering you the choice upfront.
I could be all wrong about this since I wasn't there. But my recollection is that there was a range of color choices to make, I'll call them 1 to 10, 10 being the whitest. The dentist suggested no. 5. I recommended going one shade whiter to no. 6. The crowns were definitely whiter than the natural lowers, but nobody notices that. They looked great and my friend stopped avoiding baring teeth, had the confidence to smile in front of people.
I don't envy your situation. But hope this helps.
|