CEREC - CAD/CAM

Computer Assisted Design/Computer Assisted Manufacture (CAD/CAM) of dental restorations is one of the fastest growing trends in dentistry.  Since 1999, we have been using the Cerec (Sirona; Germany) system  to make many of your indirect crowns and restorations.  Traditionally, when a crown was required, we would prepare your tooth, take an impression and send you off for two weeks with a temporary.  After two weeks, you had to leave work early, drive to our office and then, with additional freezing,  have the crown cemented.  Today, we will take the impression with an optical scanning device (no more gagging), design the restoration with special 3D software and then have an in-office milling machine make your crown out of a sold block of ceramic.  Other than finishing it in one appointment and not having you come back after two weeks of wearing a temporary filling, the major advantages of this system are:

  • Virtual lack of post operative sensitivity.
  • A thirty fold decrease in post-operative root canal incidences.
  • No additional freezing.  Its completed while you are still frozen.
  • Strengthening of the remaining tooth structure (internal splinting) due to the physical properties of the ceramic when bonded to your tooth.
  • Enhance aesthetics with no darkness at the gum line (margin).
  • Statistically proven higher success rate than with all other materials.
  • Complete control by the dentist.  It does not have to be manufactured by an off-site lab.  Sometimes we don't always get what we want.
  • Ability to quickly make a replacement in the event it gets lost during placement.
  • No loss of your temporary crown(s) while waiting for the permanent ones.
  • Superior performance of the ceramic material as a result of its industrial manufacture.

There are probably other advantages to today's in-office CAD/CAM systems, but no other technology has so revolutionized the we way help patients as has this.  Imagine a better result in less time.  Instead of walking out with a temporary crown, you can now leave our office with the final restoration.  We're sure that your time is valuable and you can appreciate not having to take more time for the second appointment

In addition to the one-visit all-ceramic restoration, we also use a sophisticated laser scanner when making complex anterior reconstructions and bridges.  Instead of using metal cores, we can now make the crowns just as strong yet much more aesthetic by using ceramic cores, some of which, are just as strong as metal.  We have the ability to use Aluminum Oxide, Zirconia and Yttrium reinforced Zirconium cores for your crowns and bridges.  As well as being among the most biologically inert materials used in dentistry, they are also the most aesthetic.