ArtsAutosBooksBusinessEducationEntertainmentFamilyFashionFoodGamesGenderHealthHolidaysHomeHubPagesPersonal FinancePetsPoliticsReligionSportsTechnologyTravel

Which is Better for Crooked Teeth - Caps or Veneers?

Updated on July 13, 2011

What are Veneers?

Dental veneers refer to a thin layer of restorative material that is placed over a tooth to improve its aesthetics. They are constructed from either one of two materials – porcelain or composite. To place veneers onto teeth, there is little preparation and removal of natural tooth structure required. At most, the tooth surface is roughened to improve the bond between the veneer and the teeth. As far as restorative dental treatments go, the placement of veneers would be considered minimally invasive.

Although veneers are generally thin in nature, the use of veneers to correct crooked teeth may involve the placement of thicker layers of restorative material in order to achieve a proper aesthetic alignment of the teeth.

What are Caps?

Caps, or crowns, are essentially that – a tooth-shaped cover that completely encases a tooth.  Generally recommended for teeth that are badly damaged or structurally weakened, the placement of crowns are known to be extremely invasive of natural tooth structure.  In order to place a crown over an existing tooth, sufficient tooth structure must first be removed to make way for the crown.  If veneers are minimally invasive, then crowns would be on the opposite end of the treatment spectrum for invasiveness.

Which is better for correcting crooked teeth?

Whenever any form of dental treatment is required, the general recommendation has always been to take the least aggressive option. This is because dental treatment, no matter how well designed or placed, comes with a shelf life. Although the shelf-life largely depends on the patient’s continued maintenance of the mouth, no artificial replacement made for the mouth can ever match the structure and integrity of original tooth structure.

When treatment undertaken is purely for cosmetic purposes, such as in the case of correcting crooked teeth, there is even less reason to select the more aggressive option. Ideally, crooked teeth should be addressed with braces (orthodontics), which is the least invasive of all treatments dealing with the correction of malaligned teeth. However, treatment with braces usually takes at minimum a year and some individuals dislike having to wear them for such a long period of time.

Therefore, between the options to place veneers versus crowns for the correction of crooked teeth, veneers would be generally be the recommended course of action to take. This is especially so if the individual in question has a generally intact arch with sound teeth. To destroy good tooth structure only to be replaced with a crown for no other purpose other than a cosmetic one would be unnecessarily aggressive. As all dental work will not last indefinitely, there will come a time when a replacement is necessary. Such replacements will only result in further removal of sound tooth structure which propagates the continued destruction of the tooth.

Additionally, crowns increase the number of tooth-restorative margins in the mouth and these are often a site of weakness that is more susceptible to bacterial penetration which can lead to tooth decay. If the malalignment of teeth is severe, it would mean the placement of several crowns, meaning even more tooth-restorative margins in the mouth.

There are situations when crowns might be a better option to veneers, such as the case where an individual also presents with badly decayed teeth that already require crowning. However, assuming the individual has no other oral conditions present and that the teeth are generally healthy, veneers are preferred over crowns.

Before making such decisions, however, it is preferable to see your dentist for a full dental check-up and have your dentist present all the options to you based on the current situation in your mouth. You can then make a proper decision by weighing up the pros and cons based on the state of your mouth rather than on a situation that is purely hypothetical and possibly irrelevant to your current oral condition.

working

This website uses cookies

As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.

For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: https://corp.maven.io/privacy-policy

Show Details
Necessary
HubPages Device IDThis is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons.
LoginThis is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service.
Google RecaptchaThis is used to prevent bots and spam. (Privacy Policy)
AkismetThis is used to detect comment spam. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Traffic PixelThis is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized.
Amazon Web ServicesThis is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. (Privacy Policy)
CloudflareThis is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. (Privacy Policy)
Google Hosted LibrariesJavascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.com or gstatic.com domains, for performance and efficiency reasons. (Privacy Policy)
Features
Google Custom SearchThis is feature allows you to search the site. (Privacy Policy)
Google MapsSome articles have Google Maps embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
Google ChartsThis is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy)
Google AdSense Host APIThis service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Google YouTubeSome articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
VimeoSome articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
PaypalThis is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook LoginYou can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
MavenThis supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy)
Marketing
Google AdSenseThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Google DoubleClickGoogle provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Index ExchangeThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
SovrnThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook AdsThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Unified Ad MarketplaceThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
AppNexusThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
OpenxThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Rubicon ProjectThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
TripleLiftThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Say MediaWe partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. (Privacy Policy)
Remarketing PixelsWe may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites.
Conversion Tracking PixelsWe may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service.
Statistics
Author Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy)
ComscoreComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Tracking PixelSome articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy)
ClickscoThis is a data management platform studying reader behavior (Privacy Policy)