COSMETIC CARE
Shade matching
We use professional shade matching techniques to ensure crowns, veneers, bridges, implants and cosmetic restorations match your natural teeth.
Shade matching is the clinical process of selecting the precise tooth colour for dental restorations, ensuring the final result looks indistinguishable from your natural teeth. It's a critical step in any cosmetic or restorative dental procedure that involves visible tooth-coloured materials.
At Dentists @ Canning Vale, we use a combination of visual assessment, digital photography, natural light evaluation, and close collaboration with our dental laboratory to achieve consistently accurate colour matching.
When Shade Matching Is Required
Precise shade matching is an essential part of the planning process for:
Dental Crowns
Porcelain Veneers
Dental Bridges
Dental Implants
Tooth Bonding
Smile Makeovers
Factors That Influence Your Tooth Colour
Natural tooth colour is complex, it's not just about shade, but also translucency, texture, and depth of colour. Several factors influence your baseline tooth colour:
Genetics
Your natural tooth colour is largely determined by genetics, some people naturally have thicker, whiter enamel while others have more translucent enamel that shows the yellow-grey dentine beneath.
Age
As we age, enamel gradually wears and the inner dentine layer becomes more prominent, causing teeth to naturally darken and yellow over time.
Lifestyle
Coffee, tea, red wine, and tobacco all cause surface staining that affects the perceived shade and tone of your teeth.
Previous Treatment
Existing restorations, medications like tetracycline, or past trauma can create variations in colour across different teeth that need to be accounted for.
Enamel Thickness
Thicker enamel appears whiter and more opaque. Thin or worn enamel is more translucent, allowing the darker dentine underneath to show through.
Our Shade Matching Process
Visual Assessment
Using a clinical shade guide, we compare multiple shades against your natural teeth under controlled conditions to identify the closest match in hue, chroma, and value.
Digital Photography
High-resolution photographs capture your teeth in different lighting conditions, providing accurate colour reference images for our dental laboratory to work from.
Natural Light Evaluation
Shade matching is always done in natural or calibrated lighting, artificial lighting shifts perceived colour and can lead to inaccurate matches.
Dental Lab Collaboration
Our detailed shade information, notes, and photographs are sent to the dental laboratory, where skilled technicians craft your restoration to match with precision.
Planning to Whiten? Do It First
If you're considering teeth whitening alongside a crown, veneer, or other restoration, it's important to complete your whitening treatment first. Whitening only affects natural enamel, not restorations. By whitening first, we can shade-match your new restoration to your brighter, post-whitening colour for a consistently white result throughout your smile.
Frequently Asked Questions
How accurately can you match my tooth colour?
Modern shade guides, digital photography, and skilled dental lab technicians allow us to achieve highly accurate matches. In most cases, a well-matched restoration is virtually indistinguishable from the surrounding natural teeth, especially for anterior (front) restorations. Perfect matching becomes more challenging when there are significant colour variations across the natural teeth.
Can I request a whiter shade than my natural teeth?
Yes, if you'd prefer a restoration that's whiter than your natural teeth, we can accommodate this. The most common approach is to complete professional whitening first, then match the restoration to your new, brighter shade. This creates a consistently lighter result across your whole smile rather than one tooth standing out.
Will my restoration look obviously different from my real teeth?
When shade matching is done carefully and the lab work is of high quality, the restoration should blend seamlessly. Some patients worry about this before treatment but are surprised at how natural the result looks. Modern ceramic and composite materials are designed to mimic the optical properties of natural enamel.
Why do teeth sometimes look different shades in different lights?
Tooth enamel is translucent and responds differently to different light wavelengths. Natural daylight, fluorescent lighting, and incandescent lighting all affect how colour is perceived. This is why we always perform shade matching in natural or specifically calibrated lighting, and take photographs for reference, to account for these variations in our laboratory instructions.
Get the Shade Right from the Start
Book a consultation to discuss your upcoming restoration and ensure your result blends perfectly with your natural smile.
Important Information
This page provides general information only and is not a substitute for professional dental advice. Treatment suitability, results and costs vary between patients.
A consultation with one of our dentists is required to assess whether this treatment is appropriate for you. Book a consultation or call 08 9256 2588.
References & Further Reading
This page is based on current clinical literature and guidelines from recognised Australian and international dental and health authorities.
- Australian Dental Association. ada.org.au
- Dental Board of Australia (AHPRA). dentalboard.gov.au
- Australian Society of Implant Dentistry (ASID). asid.com.au
- Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) - Medical Devices. tga.gov.au
- Cochrane Oral Health - Systematic Reviews. cochranelibrary.com
Content reviewed by Dr Desmond Ng, BDSc (Hons) University of Queensland | Principal Dentist, Dentists at Canning Vale. Last reviewed July 2026.