How are veneers and crowns made?
Veneers and crowns are made in a dental laboratory from your dentist's scan. A dental technician designs each tooth on screen, mills or layers it in ceramic, then stains, glazes and checks it on a model before fitting. At Creative Arts in Dubai, Creative Art Dental Lab in the same building typically needs 3–5 working days.
What does a dental laboratory actually do?
A dental laboratory turns clinical information into a physical restoration. It receives your dentist's records (a digital scan of the prepared teeth, photographs, the bite, the agreed shade and the approved smile design) and returns finished ceramic that is ready to try in and bond.
Everything in between happens at the lab bench: designing the shape of each tooth, choosing how the ceramic is built, milling or layering it, firing it, adding colour, glazing, and checking the fit against a model of your mouth. None of this is visible to the patient, which is why most explanations online stop at the dental chair.
Not every clinic has a laboratory nearby; many send their cases to an external lab. Why it matters that ours is in the same building is covered in our guide to having an in-house dental lab. This page focuses on the making itself.
Who does what: dentist, dental technician and you
A ceramic restoration is a three-way piece of work, and it helps to know who is responsible for each part.
- The dentist examines the teeth and gums, decides whether a veneer, a crown or something more conservative is right, prepares the teeth, takes the scan and records, and fits and adjusts the final restoration. All clinical decisions sit here.
- The dental technician designs and makes the restoration: the shape, length, thickness, contacts with neighbouring teeth, the biting surface and the colour. The technician does not treat patients, but for our clinic's patients can see your teeth in person to judge the shade.
- You approve the design. For veneers, you see a digital smile design and a physical mock-up in your mouth before any irreversible preparation, and you can ask for changes to length, shape or brightness at that stage.
So who designs the final smile? The dentist and technician design it together from your face, lips and existing teeth, and you have the final say on the proposal before it is made in ceramic.
Veneers, crowns and implant crowns: the steps compared
A general outline. The exact route depends on the case, the material your dentist prescribes and how many teeth are involved.
| Step | Veneer | Crown | Implant crown |
|---|---|---|---|
| Records | Photos, scan, smile design, mock-up | Scan of the prepared tooth and bite | Scan with a scan body marking the implant position |
| Preparation | Minimal, mostly in enamel; sometimes none | Reduction all around the tooth | None on a tooth; the implant is already healed in place |
| Model | Working model from the scan | 3D-printed model with removable die | Model showing the implant position and gum |
| Design | CAD design following the approved mock-up | CAD design of shape, margin and bite | CAD design on the implant position |
| Ceramic | Feldspathic layered by hand, or E.max | Zirconia or E.max | Usually zirconia or E.max, chosen by the dentist |
| Finishing | Layering or staining, firing, glazing | Sintering or crystallisation, then stain and glaze or layering | As for a crown, plus pink ceramic where gum is replaced |
| Fitting | Try-in, then bonding | Try-in, then bonding or cementing | Screwed or cemented, as the dentist decides |
Layered zirconia, monolithic zirconia, E.max and feldspathic porcelain are all made in the lab; the dentist chooses the material for each tooth.
How are porcelain veneers made, step by step?
Veneers are the most design-led restoration in dentistry, so the planning stages carry as much weight as the making.
- Records. The dentist takes facial and smile photographs, an intraoral 3D scan and notes on what you want to change.
- Digital smile design and mock-up. The proposed smile is designed in 3D against your face and lips, then transferred to your teeth as a physical mock-up so you can see it, speak with it and approve it. Read more about digital smile design.
- Preparation and scan. Only after approval does the dentist prepare the teeth, typically a fraction of a millimetre in enamel, guided by the mock-up so no more is removed than the design needs. The prepared teeth are scanned.
- CAD design. The technician designs each veneer on screen, matching the approved mock-up while setting thickness, edges and how the veneers meet.
- Building the ceramic. For feldspathic veneers, porcelain is built up by hand in thin layers on a heat-resistant (refractory) model and fired between layers, which is why they can be very thin and lifelike. E.max (lithium disilicate) veneers start from a stronger glass-ceramic that, as a material, can be pressed or milled, and are then characterised.
- Layering, staining and glazing. Colour is added in layers or as surface stains to give translucency at the edge and warmth near the gum, then the veneers are glazed in the furnace.
- Quality check on the model. The technician checks fit, contacts, edges and shade against the model before the case leaves the lab.
- Try-in and bonding. The dentist tries the veneers in, checks them with you, and bonds them to the teeth.
Thinking about veneers? Start with an examination and a smile design you can see before anything is prepared.
Read about porcelain veneersHow are dental crowns made in a dental lab?
A crown covers the whole tooth, so strength and fit at the margin (where the crown meets the tooth) matter as much as appearance.
- Scan. After the dentist has prepared the tooth, an intraoral scan records the preparation, the neighbouring teeth and the opposing bite.
- Model and die. The lab 3D prints a model of your teeth, with the prepared tooth as a separate die so the margin can be inspected from every angle.
- CAD design. The technician designs the crown: the margin line, the contact points with the teeth either side and the biting surface, so it meets the opposing teeth evenly.
- Milling. The design is milled from a ceramic block. Zirconia is milled in a soft, chalky state and slightly oversized; E.max can be milled in a partly crystallised state.
- Sintering or crystallisation. This is a material fact rather than a lab preference: zirconia is sintered at high temperature, during which it shrinks to its final size and reaches full strength, and milled E.max goes through a crystallisation firing that develops its strength and tooth-like colour.
- Colour. A monolithic crown (one material throughout) is stained and glazed. A layered crown has porcelain built over a zirconia or E.max core by hand for more depth, usually on front teeth.
- Quality check. Fit on the die, contacts and bite are checked on the model.
- Fit. The dentist tries the crown in, checks the bite and bonds or cements it.
Which material suits which tooth is explained in our E.max vs zirconia guide; for back teeth, zirconia crowns are a common choice.
Have a tooth that is heavily filled, cracked or root-treated? A crown may be the option that protects it.
Read about dental crownsHow are implant crowns made?
An implant crown is made in much the same way as a crown on a natural tooth, with two differences. First, the scan uses a scan body, a small precisely shaped part attached to the implant that tells the design software exactly where the implant sits and at what angle. Second, the crown is designed to connect to the implant rather than to a prepared tooth, and it can be screw-retained (fixed with a small screw through an access channel that is then sealed) or cemented. That choice is made by the dentist case by case.
The dentist plans and places the implant; the laboratory designs and makes the restoration that sits on it. For larger cases, the lab also makes implant-supported full-arch frameworks with pink gingival ceramic to replace lost gum. More detail is on our page about implant restorations made in the lab.
How is the colour matched?
Shade is recorded with shade tabs and photographs, but a single front crown next to natural teeth is the hardest colour to copy. For our clinic's patients, the technician can see your teeth in person under the same light as the dentist, then builds the colour into the ceramic in layers or stains. The full process is explained in our guide to custom shade matching.
Why does it take days, not hours?
Ceramic cannot be rushed without losing something. Each firing has to heat up and cool down slowly, layered porcelain is built and fired several times, and every unit is checked on the model before it leaves the lab. A case of several veneers also has to match as a set, not just tooth by tooth.
At Creative Arts, crowns and veneers are not made on the same day. The laboratory typically needs 3–5 working days depending on complexity, and it works Monday to Saturday. What is possible on the day is adjustment: if a contact is slightly tight or a shade needs warming at try-in, the restoration can often be adjusted without sending it away. Between preparation and fitting, your dentist will explain how your teeth are protected.
A note on the timeline
3–5 working days is the laboratory's typical range, not a promise. Large cases, layered ceramics and full-arch work take longer, and your written treatment plan shows the expected number of visits before you commit.
Where our veneers and crowns are made
Restorations for Creative Arts patients are made by Creative Art Dental Lab, a separate laboratory in the same building as the clinic in Jumeirah, Dubai. It has been operating for 27 years and, by its own published count, serves 800+ doctors and clinics in Dubai. It accepts 3Shape and Medit scan files, designs digitally, mills ceramic, 3D prints models and surgical guides, and hand-layers and stains feldspathic porcelain, E.max and zirconia. See the Creative Art Dental Lab page for what it makes and how dentists send cases.
The laboratory is part of Creative Art Group, led by CEO Basem Tobaji, a DHA-licensed dental lab technician with about 30 years in the dental field.
Questions worth asking about how your restorations will be made
- Will I see a design or mock-up before my teeth are prepared?
- Which material are you prescribing for each tooth, and why?
- Will the crowns be monolithic or layered?
- Can the technician see my teeth for the shade?
- How many visits will it take, and what happens if something needs adjusting at try-in?
A clear answer to each is a good sign that the clinical and laboratory sides of your treatment are working together.