The dental implant color chart is used to select a tooth shade for the porcelain color of the dental implant crown. Ideally, the color should match our natural teeth because no one wants a titanium colored tooth.
We will show you the color chart that is used for implants so you know what the options are for selecting your new tooth color.
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Dental implant color chart
The dental implant color chart is the same teeth color chart that is used for crowns, veneers, and teeth whitening. The most popular one is the VITA classical tooth shade guide, which shows every color possible for natural teeth.
This color chart has 16 different available shades for teeth that are divided into 4 different color families with different hues.
Tooth Color Family | Hue |
|---|---|
A tooth shades | Reddish-brownish |
B tooth shades | Reddish-yellowish |
C tooth shades | Grayish |
D tooth shades | Reddish-grayish |
Yes, teeth can have reddish, brownish, and greyish tones to them. We often think that teeth are just on a spectrum from white to yellow but there are tints of other colors to them. As evidence, just look at the manufacturer instructions by VITA explaining the colors.
Bleached shades for implants
Aside from the natural teeth colors, implants can also be made in the bleached tooth shades otherwise known as the "Hollywood whites."
These colors are artificial in that no one has teeth that are naturally this color. These shades are extremely white and are only achievable with either teeth whitening or dental veneers.
There are two commonly used bleached shade guides, the 0M colors and the BL colors. To give you some perspective on how white these colors are, we will compare them to the whitest natural tooth color, B1.
Ultimately, yes you can get your implant to be the same whiteness as the hollywood celebrities' teeth. The world is your oyster and you can choose whatever color you desire.
What the color is for
The color chart for dental implants is only used to select a shade for the crown portion. What it is not used for is picking a color for the implant screw fixture, healing abutment cap, and cover screw.
Essentially, the implant crown is made of porcelain and you should choose a tooth color that will match your adjacent teeth. Doing so will keep your smile looking natural. What would look unnatural is if you didn't select a color and just left it metal colored because that would be a travesty.
Gum color
Due to aesthetic challenges, sometimes your dentist may need to also add fake gums to your dental implant because you may not have enough gingiva. If you had a lot of gum recession or bone loss, you may need to have fake gums added to your implant crown.
Dentists like to refer to this as "pink porcelain" since the gums are usually pink in color. The gum colors that you can pick are similar to the denture gum colors.
Colors of other implant parts
What the dental implant color chart is NOT used for is selecting a color for the other implant parts such as the screw fixture, healing cap, and cover screw. Those three components typically remain as metal colored because it is unnecessary for them to be tooth colored.
However, there may be minor colored markings on these components for ease of identification but they aren't tooth colored. They're just random colors to help match the various implant parts that go together.
Healing abutment colors
The healing abutment screw cap is often colored but they're definitely not the same color as your teeth since it could be purple, green, yellow, etc.
The image below shows a couple of different healing abutments and what colors they can be. These colors cannot be chosen by you and neither can your dentist. These colors often relate to the size of your implant and they are that way for ease of identification.
They are colored that way as an extra fail safe so that your dentist uses the proper sized parts together.
Cover screw colors
The cover screw for the implant can be colored or uncolored, meaning it just looks like metal. It all depends on the brand of implants that you're using and what color coded system they've decided to use.
Implant screw colors
The dental implant screw fixture is titanium colored unless you've a zirconia one, which would be white in color. For the ones made of titanium, the body itself is the color of titanium but the internal hex connection can have a color to them.
Choosing an implant color
When it comes time for choosing a color for your implant, the best color for you would be one that matches your adjacent teeth. That is what you should do if you are getting a single implant restored.
The reason for matching the color to the rest of your dentition is to make it blend in seamlessly in your mouth. You want your smile to look uniform in color so that no one can tell that you lost a tooth and had dental work done.
However, if you're getting a full mouth makeover where you are replacing a lot of your teeth at once, you do have the option to select whatever color you desire. If a hollywood white smile was something that you've always wanted, now is the chance to go for it.
Takeaway
When it is almost time to get your new implant crown, you will need to use the dental implant color chart to select its color. Without it, you may be choosing the wrong shade or even worse, not having a shade at all.
If you opt for no color it would just be titanium colored and that would not be cosmetically acceptable. Of course, if you want metal looking teeth then maybe that is the right choice for you. Our dentists in Long Island City recommend choosing a color that matches your adjacent teeth!
