Can crowns look like real teeth?

In the photo adjacent photo, the left central incisor is a all porcelain bonded crown.

As this photo shows, crowns can be extremely natural looking and porcelain bonded crowns are probably the most aesthetic. They are are often used to restore anterior teeth since their degree of translucency can approach that of a natural tooth. Lava or Procera crowns are 'metal free' and can also look extremely real, but are more sturdy than bonded porcelain crowns.

Dentists can send high quality close up photographs of a patients teeth to the laboratory to help a ceramicist customize a patients crown and sometimes dentists can even have the patient visit their dental laboratory and the ceramicist can custom stain a crown with the patient present. After being custom stained the crown can be tried in or held close to the mouth to check how well it matches adjacent teeth and the patient may have the opportunity to preview it before going back to their dentist to have the crown cemented.