Have you ever had such a bad experience? You clearly ask your dental lab to make a Emax veneer with B1 shade. However, when you place the veneer in the patient’s mouth, you find the shade is more like A2. Today we are going to discuss the importance of having your stump shades before we work on your dental cases.
1. An example dental case
Let’s look at this picture. It is a case of 9-unit E-max veneers and crowns. The work is beautiful. Our customer asks for shade B1, and the shade is correct. Now it is ready to ship out.
2. Shade difference on stump shade
However, if you SUDDENLY say the patient’s stump shade is A3, it might be a totally different story. In Robust dental lab, we will manufacture personalized A3 stump shades with composite resin (to act as patient’s natural teeth). Then we will place our B1 veneers onto the A3 stump shades. It is to check if B1 veneers can still be B1 on the A3 stump shade.
As you can see, when the B1 veneer is placed onto the A3 stump shade, it is not B1 any more. It is actually much darker than B1. In such situation, we will have to remake the whole work in lab.
Please note this work could be shipped out in other dental labs, because not every lab will test the shade by manufacturing a personalized stump shade. If the work is shipped out, dentists might complain about the shade and ask for remake. This remake is unfortunately a waste of time for dentists, patients and dental labs.
3. Shade match on stump shade
Since we know the patients’ stump shade is A3, we remake all E-max venners and crowns with special treatments this time. once we finish the work, we place veneers onto the A3 stump shades again. Now it is exactly B1 without sahde difference.
In conclusion, it is best that you inform us of the stump shade (along with a picture), especially when the stump shade is dark. When we learn that information, we will make special treatments on crowns or veneers.
