If you have heard the term CEREC before at your dentist’s office, you are one of a lucky minority whose dentists are using some of the most advanced dental technology available to create natural-looking dental restorations. CEREC is a dental program that uses computer software to design and mill tooth crowns in the office while you wait. But why is this so remarkable? Understanding the benefits of CEREC one day crownsis as simple as comparing them with traditional tooth crowns.
Old-Fashioned Tooth Crowns
The traditional way of making a tooth crown dates back decades, perhaps even centuries. Your damaged tooth is reshaped by removing the enamel and a portion of the remaining tooth structure to present a base for the tooth crown. An impression of the prepared tooth is taken and sent to a dental lab, where a crown is made of porcelain, metal, or composite fused to metal. The latter two types of crowns do not look natural and rarely fit well. Porcelain crowns may look very natural, but are often costly when created by hand at a dental lab. The crown is sent back to the dentist’s office and affixed to your tooth.
CEREC System
CEREC is a two-part system that consists of a computer CAD program that uses 3D images of your tooth to design a tooth crown and a milling machine that creates the designed restoration. Because CEREC uses 3D imaging and not a dental mold from an impression, it is often not necessary to remove as much healthy tooth material as is required by the traditional way of creating tooth crowns, leaving more of the tooth intact and helping protect the tooth’s structural integrity.
Once your dentist has used CEREC to design the crown, a process which can take only a few minutes for a cosmetic dentist experienced in using CEREC, the information is sent to the milling machine, which creates your crown out of a single block of dental porcelain. The crown is created with exacting and minute detail, resulting in a crown that fits well and is similar to your natural tooth enamel in hardness, texture, and appearance. The milling process takes only a few minutes, and the crown is then placed on your tooth and polished to improve luminosity and complete the procedure.
The end result of using CEREC is the one day crown; a tooth crown which is designed and created in your dentist’s office, bypassing the cost and extra time required for impressions, temporary crowns, and shipping packages back and forth to dental labs.
.