Natural-looking shades with veneers, e.max crowns and implant restorations

When patients come to us for veneers, e.max crowns, zirconia bridges or implant-supported teeth, they usually ask two big questions:

“How white will my teeth be?”

“How do you decide the colour?”

You’ve probably seen very bright, almost “neon white” smiles on social media.

Some look impressive in photos… but in real life, they can look artificial, flat and “fake”.

At Milim Dental, our goal is different:

We want your teeth to look beautiful – and believable.

I’m Oral & Maxillofacial Surgeon Dr Ali Direnç Ulaşan, owner and clinical director of Milim Dental –

Turkey’s first Health Tourism Authorized boutique dental center,

located about 1 hour by car from Sabiha Gökçen Airport.

Together with my multidisciplinary team, we plan and deliver:

1. Porcelain veneers
2. e.max crowns and partial veneers
3. Zirconia and implant-supported crowns/bridges
4. Full-arch fixed restorations and smile rehabilitations

In this article I’ll explain, in simple language:

1. How we decide the colour (shade) of your new teeth
2. How we balance whiteness and naturalness
3. What role veneers, e.max crowns and underlying tooth colour play
4. Why “one shade fits all” is not good dentistry

1. Tooth colour is not chosen from Instagram – it’s a planned decision

The first thing to understand:

We do not choose your tooth colour with a random guess or a social media filter.

Tooth colour is influenced by:

1. Your skin tone
2. The white of your eyes (sclera)
3. Your age and facial features
4. How much light your teeth reflect or absorb
5. The material we are using (veneers, e.max crown, zirconia, composite)
6. The underlying tooth or implant abutment colour

A shade that looks perfect on one person can look completely wrong on another.

So, instead of asking:

“Which white is in fashion?”

we ask:

“Which colour range will look natural and harmonious in your face?”

2. How we start: listening to what you want

Before we touch a shade guide, we ask you:

1. “What bothers you about your current tooth colour?”
2. “Do you want a subtle change or a dramatic lightening?”
3. “Do you like very bright ‘bleach’ shades, or more natural tones with character?”
4. “Do you want your new veneers or e.max crowns to match your other teeth, or are we changing everything together?”

Some patients say:

1. “I just want them a bit lighter, not too white.”

Others say:

1. “I want a clearly whiter smile, but I don’t want people to see me from space.”

And a few honestly say:

1. “I like very bright, celebrity-style white.”

Our job is to:

1. Understand your wish
2. Explain what is realistic with your teeth and materials
3. Make sure the final result fits you, not just a trend

3. The basics: how we actually measure and choose tooth colour

Tooth colour is more than “white vs yellow”.

We look at three main components:

1. Hue – the basic family (more reddish, more yellowish, etc.)
2. Chroma – intensity or saturation
3. Value – lightness (how bright or grey it appears)

In clinic, we use:

1. Professional shade guides (not cosmetic charts from a catalogue)
2. Natural daylight or colour-corrected lighting
3. Sometimes cross-polarized photos to see true shade without shine
4. Digital cameras to record and communicate with our lab

We compare:

1. Your existing teeth
2. Shade tabs held next to them
3. How these look with your lips and skin

We don’t just look straight-on. We also check:

1. From the side
2. When you smile
3. When you speak

Because teeth must look good in motion, not only in a close-up photo.

4. Veneers and e.max crowns: how material choice affects colour

4.1. Veneers – thin but powerful

Porcelain veneers are very thin shells placed on the front surface of the tooth.

They allow light to pass through and reflect back, similar to natural enamel.

Colour decisions for veneers must consider:

1. The underlying tooth colour (if it’s very dark, we may need a slightly more opaque porcelain)
2. How much tooth reduction is planned
3. How many teeth we are treating in the smile zone

If the underlying tooth is:

1. Only slightly discoloured → we can use more translucent, natural-looking ceramics
2. Quite dark or has old root canal discoloration → we may choose a slightly more masking material or treat the underlying tooth first

Veneers are ideal when:

1. We want natural brightness
2. We are improving colour, shape and minor misalignment
3. We want to preserve as much tooth as possible

With veneers, we often choose a shade that is:

2–3 steps lighter than your current teeth,

but still in harmony with your face.

4.2. e.max crowns – strength and beauty together

e.max is a lithium disilicate ceramic, famous for:

1. Excellent aesthetics
2. Very good strength
3. Great light transmission

We use e.max crowns or partial crowns when:

1. The tooth is more damaged
2. We need more coverage than a thin veneer
3. We still want high-quality, natural-looking transparency

For colour planning with e.max:

1. We choose both the shade of the ceramic block and the characterisation (staining, layering)
2. We consider the core shade (what’s under the crown – tooth, build-up, or implant abutment)
3. We work closely with our lab to mimic enamel, dentin and subtle colour nuances

e.max is excellent for:

1. Front teeth crowns
2. Veneers
3. Some premolars

It can create very natural, “alive” teeth that are bright without looking like plastic.

4.3. Zirconia and implant crowns: when opacity matters

For implant-supported crowns or bridges, especially in the back:

1. We often use zirconia or zirconia-based restorations
2. Zirconia is stronger and more opaque

Colour choice with zirconia must:

1. Mask the grey or metallic tone of implant abutments if present
2. Still give a natural gradient from gum to incisal edge

In aesthetic zones, we may combine:

1. A zirconia core for strength
2. More translucent ceramics layered on top for natural colour and texture

Again, the aim is not “maximum white”, but harmonious white.

5. “Fake white” vs “real natural white”: how we keep you on the right side

One of our biggest responsibilities is to protect you from a result you might regret later.

We are very honest with patients who say:

“I want the whitest white possible.”

We explain:

1. Very unnatural bleach shades may look impressive in a filtered photo
2. But in real life, they can:
3. Draw attention away from your eyes and face
4. Look flat and artificial
5. Age badly as you get older
6. Make untreated teeth (lower jaw, back teeth) look dark and dirty by contrast

We usually recommend:

1. A “natural bright” shade rather than “toilet bowl white”
2. Micro-characterisation (subtle translucency, slight mamelons, soft halo) to avoid a “plastic strip” look

We may show you:

1. Examples of overly white vs naturally bright restorations
2. How your skin tone interacts with different shades

In the end, we want people to say:

“You look great – did you change something?”

not:

“Wow, what did you do to your teeth…?”

6. Matching or changing: do we blend or transform?

When choosing colour, we decide together:

6.1. Are we matching existing teeth?

For example:

1. You are getting a single e.max crown on one front tooth
2. Or two veneers next to natural teeth
3. Or one implant crown between intact neighbours

Here the priority is:

Perfect colour and texture match with the surrounding teeth.

We then:

1. Carefully analyse the neighbour tooth under different lights
2. Take close-up photos with shade tabs
3. Communicate detailed instructions to the lab (value, chroma, characterisation, surface texture)

In these cases, we may not choose the whitest possible shade.

We choose the most accurate one to blend invisibly.

6.2. Are we changing the whole visible smile?

For example:

1. 8–10 veneers on upper front teeth
2. Full-arch e.max or ceramic bridge
3. All-on-4 / All-on-6 full-arch prosthesis

Here we have more freedom to choose:

1. A uniform brighter shade
2. With balanced value and natural effects

We still consider:

1. Lower teeth – will they be whitened to match?
2. Skin tone and age
3. Long-term believability

Often we:

1. Do teeth whitening first (if we are keeping some natural teeth)
2. Then design veneers, e.max crowns or implant restorations to match the new, lighter baseline

7. The “try-in” step: testing the colour before final cementation

Even with all our digital tools and experience, we respect one simple truth:

The most important light is the one you live in.

So before we finalise, we usually:

1. Try in veneers or crowns without permanent cement
2. Check them in natural light, not only under the dental lamp
3. Ask you to look in a mirror, smile, talk, and see yourself from different angles

If needed, we can:

1. Adjust the brightness slightly
2. Add more characterisation (tiny white spots, translucent edge, internal shading)
3. Modify surface texture (more gloss, more micro-texture)

We only fix the restorations permanently when both you and our team feel:

1. The colour is right
2. The harmony with your face is natural
3. The reflection and “feel” are satisfying

8. Digital cameras and communication with the lab

Because we work as a multidisciplinary, digital-oriented, boutique clinic, we invest seriously in communication with our dental technicians.

For colour-critical cases (veneers, e.max crowns in the front), we:

1. Take high-quality DSLR photos with shade guides in place
2. Use standardised lighting conditions
3. Send notes about:
4. Desired value (brightness)
5. Desired level of translucency
6. Age-appropriate texture and effects
7. Any special characteristics (slight warmth, cooler tone, etc.)

This extra step is what often separates:

1. “Nice from a distance, odd up close”
2. from
3. “Hard to tell which tooth is natural and which is ceramic.”

9. Why it matters that your colour is decided by a team, not just by marketing

Tooth colour seems like a “cosmetic” topic, but it has deep links with:

1. Dentistry
2. Psychology
3. Personal identity

At Milim Dental, your colour is not chosen by:

1. A non-medical salesperson
2. A trend list from social media

It is chosen by:

1. A surgeon-led, multidisciplinary team
2. Restorative dentists and lab technicians who understand materials (veneers, e.max crowns, zirconia)
3. Clinicians who see you in person, not only in photos

Because we are a boutique, Health Tourism Authorized center, we have:

1. Time to discuss shade with you
2. Time for try-ins and adjustments
3. Time to say “no” if a requested colour would damage your naturalness or long-term satisfaction

Our aim is simple:

A smile that is bright enough for you to love it,

and natural enough that others accept it as truly yours.

10. In summary: how we decide your tooth colour

When you ask:

“How do you decide the colour of my new teeth?”

this is what really happens:

1. We listen to your wishes (subtle change vs dramatic whitening).
2. We analyse your face, lips, skin tone, age and existing teeth.
3. We use shade guides, digital photos and proper lighting to map your baseline.
4. We choose materials (veneers, e.max crowns, zirconia, implant crowns) according to your needs and the underlying tooth or implant colour.
5. We decide if we are matching existing teeth or changing the whole smile.
6. We create and try in the restorations, checking in real light and movement.
7. We adjust colour, translucency and texture until the result is both beautiful and believable.

If you are thinking about veneers, e.max crowns or full-arch implant restorations and are worried:

1. “Will I look fake?”
2. “Will they be too white?”
3. “Will people see my teeth before they see me?”

then the key is not just where you go, but how that clinic thinks about colour.

At Milim Dental, we use digital systems, high-end materials and a surgeon-led, boutique approach

to design not just white teeth,

but a natural, individual smile that fits you – in real life, not just in photos.