What is the difference between porcelain crowns & veneers?

Question

which is better? cheaper?

Answer 1

A veneer is limited to the lip surface of a tooth.  It requires a little reduction of this surface (.5-1mm) so that it can be replaced by a thin sliver of porcelain that will change the shape or color of the underlying tooth.

A porcelain crown goes all the way around the tooth.  This means that the whole tooth needs to be reduced about 1.5mm all the way around.  So you end up losing a lot more tooth structure with a crown prep.

A veneer would be a little bit cheaper than a full crown, but not by much.

Because a veneer preparation requires less tooth destruction, I would consider it to be better.  Both can have accidents.  Porcelain can fracture for both crowns and veneers.  Veneers can also just debond and pop off.  If you can do the job with veneers then veneers are better.  If you need a crown to provide strengthen the tooth, or to fill a large gap, then the crown is obviously better.