CEREC - Single-Visit Porcelain Crowns

CEREC - Chairside Restoration of Esthetic Ceramics

CEREC (by Sirona Dental Company) is a revolutionary system that enables your dentist to design, fabricate and fit a new crown, veneer, onlay or inlay in a single visit, a procedure that would normally take at least two weeks. Dr LaFrom has been working with CEREC crowns for many years now and has won awards for design and aesthetics from the Bay Area (Cupertino, San Jose, Sunnyvale, Saratoga) Dental Study Club.

If a CEREC restoration is recommended, your dentist will prepare your tooth in the normal way he or she would before fitting a crown or a veneer. At this point instead of using "dental putty" to take an impression of your tooth, a digital (optical) image is taken using a special camera. This image is then converted into 3D computerized model of your tooth which is used as a guide to design your new restoration. Once your dentist is happy with the newly designed tooth, this data is sent to an onsite milling machine which fabricates your new tooth from a high quality ceramic block.

In about 8 minutes, the CEREC milling machine will sculpt your ceramic restoration from a solid block of porcelain. Once the restoration has been tested for proper fit (so that it does not interfere with your bite) and polished, it is permanently bonded to your tooth. The end result is a ceramic restoration that looks and feels just like your natural teeth - all done in a single visit.

There are several advantages to having treatment with CEREC over conventional laboratory made restorations:

1. Every thing is carried out in a single visit - you only need to visit the dentist once and take one day away from your work or life to have the procedure instead of the usual 2 or 3 visits. 
2. Only one set of local anaesthetic injections - single the entire procedure can be carried out within the hour you only need to have one lot of injections. 
3. Your dentist is in complete control of the final result - since the crown or veneer is designed and fabricated from start to finish by your dentist he has total control over how it will look and fit, whereas a crown made in a laboratory is under the control of the technician who hasn't even seen the patient. 
4. No temporary restorations - If you have lab made veneers you would require temporary veneers during the wait whilst your new teeth are being made be the technician. These have been known to fall off and cause problems which is a step that is omitted with CEREC restorations. 

CEREC is fast becoming a cost-effective and popular technology -giving techniques like Veneer and Lumineers a run for their money because it saves time, is cost effective and provides a more accurate restoration.