The 0.3 mm difference between a veneer and a crown
A great many 'veneer' packages sold to medical travellers are full crowns. Here is how to read your treatment plan and tell them apart.
Reviewed by Dr. Elif Şahin, Head of Prosthodontics
A veneer covers the front surface of a tooth and typically requires between 0.3 and 0.5 mm of preparation. A crown encircles the tooth and requires the removal of considerably more structure. The two are not interchangeable, and the difference is permanent.
Many packages advertised to medical travellers as veneers are, on inspection of the treatment plan, full zirconia crowns. Crowns are the right answer in plenty of cases — heavily restored, root-treated or structurally compromised teeth — but they are the wrong answer for a healthy tooth that needed shape or shade correction only.
Read your plan for the words used per tooth, the material named, and the preparation depth. If a plan proposes crowning sound anterior teeth for aesthetic reasons alone, ask what a more conservative option would look like, and get the answer in writing before you travel.