When you get a porcelain crown, should the metal base be at all visible?

I'm wondering if this is how it's supposed to be. I have a new porcelain crown. It fits fine and works fine, but I can see a slight grayish color at the base, which the dental hygenist explained was just the metal base of the crown visible. Is this ok/normal? Or does this reflect sloppy dentistry?





Thanks.

When you get a porcelain crown, should the metal base be at all visible?
It can be normal, it all depends on how the crown was made. This is the collar, or margin of the crown. A dentist can usually ask the lab to do a wrap around porcelain margin, and then you wouldn't see the metal. Most dentists only do this on the facial surface of a tooth that would show. Usually on molars, most dentists do not request the lab to do this.





If you had a non-precious metal fused to porcelain crown, this can also cause that metal show through. It isn't as likely, though it does happen, on a high noble crown.





So to answer your question, no it isn't necessarily sloppy dentistry, though he probably could have asked the lab to do a porcelain margin, though he might have had to prep (Prepare) your tooth differently.
Reply:I wish I knew.


Mine does too.
Reply:Depends on the amount of tooth that was left to cover, depends on your gumline.





I had to get a crown and the tooth was broken, I had to have the gumline drilled away a little each week for the crown to be able to get to the tooth. I have some silver at the bottom of the crown and it was to give the crown a little more stability due to the lack of tooth to help it from cracking in the future.





Very good dentist tried to help a bad situation in my case. The porcelain is good if you have tooth under it, if it is a back tooth you are using to crunch with etc. then you want it strong.
Reply:Depends upon the type of porcelain crown you received. Some crowns have complete metal along the gumlines on the backside of teeth, and some porcelain crowns may have only a very small line of metal that is normally put underneath the gumline so not visible. However, normally the gumline will receed slightly over time and become visible. Only crowns made out of full porcelain have absolutely no visible metal.
Reply:Metal base of crown can be visible at gumline and this is not abnormal.





The viablity of the crown depends upon the structure of the tooth underneath the crown and the fit, bite and seal of the crown itself. If all of these things are in order and you see a slight grey color at the base then the crown should be just fine.
Reply:yes it should be there thats ok. Your hygenist is right. They do it cause the metal will collect less bacteria than the porcelain will. Dont worry i work at a dental office and all of our crowns have a metal base
Reply:If the crown is on an anterior (front) tooth, and you're self-conscious about it, ask to have it remade... for the amount of money you paid, it should be near-perfect.





If your gums are that 'thin', the metal could have been omitted from that part of the crown so it wouldn't be noticable.