E-max Crowns in Turkey

What an E-max crown is

E-max is the everyday name for IPS e.max, a lithium disilicate glass-ceramic made by the dental manufacturer Ivoclar. An E-max crown covers the whole visible part of a tooth, like any crown, but it is made entirely of ceramic, with no metal base and no second material on top. On our price list it appears as the "E-max Crown". This page goes deeper into E-max on its own; for how crowns compare in general, and whether a tooth needs one at all, start with our dental crowns in Antalya page.

E-max is a glass-ceramic, and that is what makes it look like a tooth. Enamel is not a flat white: some light passes into it, bounces around and comes back out, which gives a natural tooth its depth. E-max behaves in a similar way. It is also strong enough for most front crowns and many premolars, though it is not as tough as zirconia, which is why it is not our usual choice for heavily loaded back teeth.

Our E-max veneers are made from the same family of material, so a crown and a set of veneers can be made to match. More on that below.

Why E-max looks natural

Three things decide how lifelike a crown looks: how it handles light, how well its colour can be controlled, and how thin it can be at the edges.

• Light. E-max lets light pass through it. A front crown in E-max picks up some of the colour around it, rather than looking painted on.
• Translucency levels. IPS e.max comes in blocks of different translucency. The technician can choose a more see-through block where the tooth underneath is a good colour, or a more opaque one to hide a darkened tooth.
• Hand finishing. After milling, the ceramist stains and glazes each crown by hand, adding the small variations of real teeth: a slightly lighter edge, a warmer neck, the faint lines many natural teeth have.
• Fine edges. E-max can be finished thin at the gum line, so the crown sits flush with the tooth and the gum without a bulky edge.

None of this is automatic. A single front crown next to your own natural teeth is one of the hardest things in dentistry to match exactly, which is why the try-in, in daylight, with you looking, matters so much.

Who E-max suits, and who it does not

An E-max crown usually suits you if

• a front tooth, or a premolar that shows when you smile, is broken, heavily filled or root-treated;
• you are having veneers on neighbouring teeth and the crown needs to match them;
• an old crown on a front tooth looks grey, flat or too white and you want it replaced;
• there is not much height left on the tooth, and a bonded crown would help it stay on.

We would suggest something else if

• The crown is on a molar under heavy biting force. Zirconia crowns are tougher, and usually the safer choice at the back of the mouth.
• You clench or grind hard. E-max can chip or crack under repeated heavy force. The dentist may still use it on front teeth, with a night guard, but will talk it through with you first.
• The tooth is healthy and only needs a new colour or shape. An E-max veneer covers only the front of the tooth and keeps far more of it. Our guide to caps and veneers explains when each makes sense.
• The crown is on an implant at the back. Implant crowns there are usually zirconia, planned with the implant.

Bonding an E-max crown

A crown can be fixed to the tooth in two broad ways. It can be cemented, where the cement mainly fills the gap and the crown stays on because it fits closely round the tooth. Or it can be bonded, where the inside of the crown and the surface of the tooth are treated so that a resin cement sticks to both.

E-max is usually bonded. Glass-ceramic can be etched on its inner surface, which gives the resin something to grip, and bonding is understood to add to the strength of the finished crown as well as its hold on the tooth. It also helps on short teeth, where there is too little height for a crown to stay on by fit alone.

The trade-off is that bonding is more demanding. The tooth has to be kept clean and dry while the crown goes on, which takes more time in the chair than a simple cementation. Your dentist decides how each crown is fixed, and tells you at the fitting.

E-max crowns next to veneers

Many front-teeth plans mix crowns and veneers: crowns on teeth that are broken or heavily filled, veneers on the healthy ones beside them. Because our crowns and veneers are both made from Ivoclar IPS e.max in the same lab, the technician can work from one shade and one smile design, so the crowned and veneered teeth look like a set rather than two separate jobs. Where the plan covers most of the smile, it is designed as a smile makeover.

If you would like your teeth whiter, whitening comes first. E-max keeps the colour it is made in and cannot be whitened afterwards, so the crowns are matched to your teeth after they have been whitened. See teeth whitening.

How our E-max crowns are made

Every E-max crown is made at OGN Dental Studio, the lab in our building. The dentist records the prepared tooth with a 3Shape Trios intraoral scanner and takes the shade with VITA shade guides, often with photographs so the technician can see the neighbouring teeth.

The technician designs the crown on screen and it is milled from a block of IPS e.max on Dentsply Sirona CAD/CAM equipment. The milled form of the material is generally machined in a softer, partly crystallised state and then fired in a furnace, which completes the crystals, gives the crown its strength and brings out its final tooth colour. The ceramist then stains and glazes it by hand.

Having the lab in the building matters most for front crowns. If the shade or the shape is not quite right at the try-in, the technician can see the crown in your mouth, take it back and return it while you are still in Antalya. The scanners and imaging are described on our clinic page.

Your E-max crowns, step by step

• Before you travel, send photographs of your smile in daylight, a close-up of your front teeth and any recent X-ray. Tell us about veneers, old crowns or whitening you are thinking about, so the plan covers the whole smile.
• On day one the dentist examines each tooth, checks your bite and takes digital X-rays. You agree the plan, the material for each tooth and the price in writing.
• At preparation each tooth is shaped under local anaesthetic, scanned, shade-matched and covered with a temporary crown.
• At the try-in you see the crowns in your mouth in daylight. The dentist checks the fit, the bite and the colour with you, and anything that is not right goes back to the lab.
• At the fitting the crowns are bonded or cemented and the bite is checked again before you fly.

Crowns are a single visit on our price list, and for most crown cases we suggest allowing about a week in Antalya, with a few free days while the lab works; our page on Antalya has ideas. Your written plan confirms the days for your own case. Treat the figures on this page as typical, not promised.

The price

An E-max crown is €190 per tooth on our dental price list. You pay for each crowned tooth, so one front crown and a row of crowns across your smile are very different totals. Anything a tooth needs first, such as a filling, root canal treatment or gum contouring, is added to your written plan as its own line before you agree to anything, and so are any veneers planned alongside. The treatment plan builder shows how a combined plan adds up from the same list.

Looking after E-max crowns

E-max does not decay and its glaze resists staining, but the tooth underneath can decay at the edge of the crown. Brush twice a day, clean between your teeth every day, and see your own dentist and hygienist for check-ups; show them your written plan so they know which teeth are E-max. Avoid biting directly on very hard things such as ice, bottle tops or hard sweets with your front crowns. If you grind, wear a night guard; ask about one at your consultation. If anything chips or worries you once you are home, send us a photo on WhatsApp and a dentist will look at it.

Risks with E-max crowns

• The preparation is permanent. A tooth shaped for a crown will always need one.
• Chipping or fracture. E-max is strong for a glass-ceramic, but less tough than zirconia, and heavy grinding or biting on hard objects can crack it.
• Sensitivity or a nerve problem. Preparing a live tooth can irritate its nerve. It usually settles, but a heavily filled tooth sometimes needs root canal treatment later.
• A shade that is not quite right. Matching a single front crown is hard. Checking at the try-in, before the crown is fixed, is how we keep this to a minimum.
• A crown coming loose, usually because the tooth underneath has decayed. A bonded crown that comes off is often replaced rather than re-bonded.

With good care an E-max crown can last many years, but no one can promise a lifespan: it depends on the tooth underneath, your bite and how you look after it. Our guide to E-max and zirconia crowns compared sets the two materials side by side, including the manufacturers' published strength figures.

Who carries out your treatment

Crown cases at Persona Smile are planned and carried out by our dentists. The dentist who will treat you is named in your written plan, and you meet them before anything is done. Every dentist is listed on our dentists page.

Before and after pictures

We only show pictures of our own patients, with their written consent. As consented cases are added, they appear on this page and in our smile stories, never stand-in pictures of other people.

Next steps

To find out whether E-max is right for your teeth, send us photographs and any X-rays when you book a consultation, or on WhatsApp. A dentist will reply with a material for each tooth and a written price from our price list. You can also read more about Persona Smile, our dental clinic in Antalya, or look through all our smile treatments.