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Great Esthetics with an In House Laboratory

Posted in Cosmetic Dentistry
Posted on February 12, 2013 by Dr. Gerald Marlin

Since 1985, we have maintained our in-house dental laboratory in our practice to establish effective control of the esthetics, the precision fit, and the most optimal bite for our patients’ crowns. With our technician working chairside with our patients, he is able to create a natural looking tooth as he applies the inherent color in the lower layers of the porcelain, which mimics the 3D look of natural teeth. In essence, the color of the tooth comes from its dentin that is underlying the more translucent enamel, and shading the porcelain in this manner provides a more natural “glow” to the crown, which simply cannot be achieved with just surface staining the porcelain to match the adjacent teeth.  In addition, many crowns lack the proper translucency as the technician avoids making “errors” when fabricating the crown. The proper combination of internal coloration and the right translucency, in turn, is difficult to create without the technician actually seeing the patient.  Even the best of the commercial laboratories cannot provide this customized service. The following case is an example of the most difficult tooth to restore, the single central incisor crown, wherein the internal color and the translucency have to perfectly match the natural tooth next to it, which is on the midline, to boot. To see other examples of vibrant esthetics see our cosmetic portfolio.

A veneer needing replacement with a crown

Veneer replaced

About the Author

Dr. Gerald Marlin is a Washington D.C. specialist in implant, cosmetic, and restorative dentistry.

Dr. Gerald Marlin
Dr. Gerald Marlin has been Recognized as a Washingtonian ‘Top Dentist’ for over 20 Consecutive Years by His Peers, as recently acknowledged in the Washingtonian “Hall of Fame 2024”.

Through this commitment, Dr. Marlin provides his patients with long-lasting (35 years vs. the national average of 7-10 years) aesthetic restorations so that they have virtually no future problems.

As such, he is a leading specialist in dental implants, cosmetic dentistry, sedation dentistry , and restorative dentistry  in the Bethesda–Chevy Chase, Northern Virginia, and Washington DC Metro Area. He has inserted and restored over 3,600 dental implants.