Objective: Single-crown preparations at a dental teaching hospital were compared with guidelines advocated in the dental literature. Method and materials: Sixty-three single complete gold crown and 151 single ceramometal crown preparations were evaluated. Impression silhouettes were measured for occlusal and axial wall tooth reductions, shoulder widths, internal shoulder angles, and axial wall convergence angles. Marginal designs, the presence of retention grooves and undercuts, and the types of cores present were also recorded. Results: Cuspal reduction was generally inadequate for the ceramometal crowns, and central fossa reduction was insufficient for both complete gold crowns and ceramometal crowns. The facial shoulder widths were also generally underprepared for the ceramometal crowns. Axial wall convergence angles for both complete gold crowns and ceramometal crowns were generally much greater than recommended. Large faciolingual convergence angles for anterior ceramometal crowns were associated with the absence of cingulum walls. Few preparations had retention grooves or undercut areas. Conclusion: Although strict guidelines for tooth preparations for complete crowns are available and well known to dentists, the preparations in this study did not always conform to these recommendations.