When I was 20 years old I had porcelain-fused-to-metal crowns placed on my teeth. That was almost 25 years ago, and now those crowns look pretty bad. There is a very noticeable dark line at my gumline, and I have a really big smile. Is there anything that can cover that line up? What about Lumineers? What about dental bonding? I don’t want to have to replace all these porcelain crowns because that will be pretty expensive, but I have about reached the end of being able to deal with these ugly crowns.

Melissa in Augusta, Maine

Dear Melissa,

There are really not many options for you here. You need new porcelain crowns, and if you chose the right dentist to help you, your new smile will be stunning. Putting Lumineers or some other kind of porcelain veneer over your existing crowns will not yield good results, and dental bonding will not work to disguise the dark line.

The most important point to take from this discussion is that you need to choose an experienced, expert, artistic cosmetic dentist to help you get this work done. Any dentist can say that they do cosmetic work, so you’ll need to be a careful investigator. Check websites for patient galleries, and ask about specialized training.

This blog post created for Baton Rouge dentist Dr. Perry.