Contemporary all-ceramic systems allow us greater management of light and color to mimic the natural dentition. There are various common colors present in the adjacent prepared teeth. These different backgrounds often influence the final shade of the cemented restoration, which complicates the crown fabrication. This difficulty becomes more critical when restoring a single anterior tooth. Different ambient light conditions may alter the observed appearance of the restoration to the patient, dentist, and technician. This presentation explains how to select an all-ceramic system for different clinical situations. The material selection is based primarily on the material's opacity and/or translucency. Guidelines for communication between the dentist and technician are also discussed.

Aki Yoshida, CDT, is the owner of Gnathos Dental Studio in Weston, Massachusetts. In addition, he serves as a technical instructor for the Department of Postgraduate Prosthodontics at Tufts University in Boston, Massachusetts; an adjunct faculty member of the UCLA Center for Esthetic Dental Design in Los Angeles, California; and an instructor for Noritake Dental Supply. He has given numerous hands-on demonstrations and classes throughout the United States, South America, and Europe on anterior porcelain-fused-to-metal restorations, porcelain laminate veneers, and internal staining. He is a four-time masterpiece technician in the Japanese Quintessence of Dental Technology (QDT), and has published several articles on anterior esthetic restoration in the US version of QDT.