Dr. Deepa Jayashankar Podcast

When we tell the difference between veneers and crowns, we have to know the different surfaces of the  tooth. When we say a front  tooth, the incisor, it  has 5  surfaces. The labial, palatal, mesial and distal, proximal and incisal. The posterior  surface or the molar  has occlusal,  buccal,  palatal,  mesial and  distal, proximals. So when we say a veneer, veneer is a prosthesis  where  we have more  than  1  or  2  surface of the  tooth is prepared to receive the prosthesis. But  when we  say  a crown,  all the  5 surfaces  are  prepared in order  to receive a crown or a cap in the layman’s term. So a  full  veneer  crown, involves  preparation of  all the surfaces of the  tooth and then we have  a cap, and  all ceramic  crown placed on the tooth,   which requires  a prosthesis or it can be an all metal crown which is   going into the full preparation of the tooth.  When we say a veneer, most of the time the  first   or the labial surface  is prepared and this requires  smile designs where the patient  doesn’t like the way the tooth is  paced  but  don’t  want to undergo orthodontic treatment  or there is simply  discoloration of  the tooth and they don’t like the discoloration, or there can be  minute  gaps in the tooth and they    are  coming for a cosmetic  treatment.  So in that reason what we do is  we prepare  the labial or the incisal  surface of  the tooth and we  place a veneer. In Tooth Firm, for  a veneer, w e have  different templates  where we  size  up the patients tooth, co example  the patient is  not happy with the  diastema , we try to measure the  disatema  with certain templates . We decide what kind of veneer looks  better  for that patient and these  veneer  are made with laser  sintered  composites. So we place it  on the patient and we  show them  we  are all happy with it and with minimal preparation we place prosthesis and we  close  minimal maloccclusisosns  like diastema and  also close  minimal  malocclusions  like diastema or  even certain discolorations. it can be   done with certain  material  like ceramic but  it  be  done  with certain  technique and finesse and  skill is  very  much required  by   a  prosthodontist, whoever is  affecting these  cases. So a full veneer or a partial veneer, requires  more  technique  sensitivity than  a full veneer crown. So that is the difference between the two prosthesis.