To ask about teeth

[DuelingFanjo]

I sometimes see people with nice white teeth but all by the gum is black... is this because they have veneers or crowns?

Sorry for the weird question but I have all my own teeth and have never really understood what crowns are... does this mean that underneath their teeth are black?

Crowns. It's when the gum has receded and the tooth remaining beneath is dead.

When the crowns are first fitted there's no visible line. But as the gum shrinks over time it reveals what's left of the tooth which has been drilled to a stump and has gone black. I think you can now get gum implants to disguise it.

I thought it was because some crowns consist of porcelain fused onto metal to make the crown strong. The dark line is the metal.

Kittycatz is right everyone else was wrong

Yes its when the gum recedes back and shows metal collar of crown. Not all crowned teeth are dead.

Ah ok, so to get a crown do your teeth have to have been damaged or rotted? I have receding gums but ok teeth.

Erm yes the last explanations make more sense .
No crowned teeth don't have to be dead - a bridge is often created using healthy teeth.

If your teeth are healthy you could consider veneers, these don't require your natural teeth to been shaped into a post. Crowns are normally for teeth that have previously hard large fillings or are fairly carious. There needs to be enough tooth to make a post with.

The black part you can see when people have crowns is the metal collar showing when the gums recede which often happens naturally with age

You should look at gum grafts. They can repair the parts which have receded.

A bridge is not a crown...a bridge is essentially one false tooth which is attached to the adjacent teeth at the back...so it isn't removable like a false tooth. They're used when the root is too damaged for a crown.

My dentist hubby always says the dentist who did them didn't do them properly if we see 'bad veneers'. I don't know what the truth is in that.

A bridge is not a crown, but in afair it's held in place by dint of the teeth either side being crowned.

Veneers look good but they are v expensive & require renewing every 10 years or so. Also I think they can damage the natural tooth?