I have a not-so-small gap between my front teeth. One of my front teeth is also an older crown. I have been told by two dentists that my gap can be corrected without braces. I was also told by a third dentist that without getting braces that I will have gigantic front teeth. I want to ask if veneers or porcelain crowns would be an option. I really want the gap closed. Please give me your advice.
– Suzy from North Carolina

Suzy,
You need to be careful here. Over 90% of dentists become dentists because they like to fix things, and they don’t have strong artistic inclinations. Often, what looks good to them doesn’t look good to your average patient. I once saw a discussion on a dentistry blog where a number of dentists were talking about putting an extra front tooth between a beautiful woman’s two other front teeth in order to fill the gap.

I could tell better if I actually were to examine your teeth, but it sounds like this gap is a little too large to just be fixed simply. So it’s going to be really important that you see a dentist with a strong artistic side. Your best guarantee of finding someone like that is to find someone who is accredited by the American Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry. You’re in North Carolina, and there are several excellent accredited cosmetic dentists there.

For a small gap, when one of your front teeth has a crown, you could get a new all-porcelain crown on that tooth and then a conservative porcelain veneer on the other. If the gap is large, you may need to put porcelain veneers on two more teeth, so that you could make the two lateral incisors a little larger and then make the two central incisors a more normal size and thus close the gap. But you need a true cosmetic dentist with real artistic inclinations to do something like that and have the result look good.

Another option would be to close the gap with Invisalign invisible braces.

Other links:
You may want to visit our Lafayette, Louisiana Dentist website.
How to fix crooked teeth without braces.
Lafayette Louisiana Invisalign