We are proud to provide CEREC 3-D Technology to our patients. CEREC Technology can design, fabricate and place a ceramic restoration in just one visit! Also with this new system, the need for temporaries or impressions has been eliminated.
Through the use of this new technology, we can save more of the healthy tooth structure in our patients while giving them beautiful, tooth-colored restorations that are metal-free and durable.
CEREC is a Computer Assisted Design/Computer Assisted Manufacture system. We prepare the tooth properly and take an infrared picture that is captured in the CEREC computer. Design parameters are established, and the computer system creates a proposed restoration. Minor modifications can be accomplished and then the restoration is milled from a monolithic block of porcelain.
It is resin cement bonded to the tooth structure, creating a strong, esthetic result.
The CEREC 3
If you fractured a tooth, what would you like to have happen in the process of fixing it? Would you like it to be fixed with the strongest material possible?
Maybe you’d like it done in one visit with no impressions in your mouth for several minutes. It would be nice if you didn’t have to go through a procedure and then come back two or three weeks later to have it cemented. Welcome to the wonderful world of CEREC.
We have invested in a piece of equipment that is high technology dentistry at its best. The CEREC 3 can manufacture in our office full crowns, onlays and inlays to restore fractured and decayed teeth. The beauty of the CEREC is now a fractured tooth doesn’t necessarily have to be ground down all the way around for a crown. We can make a filling to replace what is broken and save the remaining enamel that is still strong and sound.
Here’s how it works. Suppose a tooth is broken. We do some preparation on the remaining tooth structure. Then we use a fine powder, much like talcum, and spray a fine layer over the tooth. Then a quick infrared picture is taken with our computer. Some design parameters are done on the computer. A solid block of porcelain is placed in the milling chamber of the CEREC. In 10 to 15 minutes, the porcelain restoration is done. We then fit it and bond it to the remaining tooth structure. This is usually done in 40-50 minutes, one appointment—done.
Our hope is that our clients will learn to understand the benefit of this great restoration and demand its use for all their restorative needs.