CEREC - One-Visit All-Porcelain Restorations

CEREC® 3D

Technology today is changing our everyday lives. Many people, however, aren’t aware that technology also is impacting dentistry in new and exciting ways. Cutting-edge innovations in dental instruments are requiring less time in the dental chair, causing less discomfort and creating satisfying results. One breakthrough instrument, called CEREC® 3D, allows dentists to quickly restore damaged teeth in one visit with natural -colored ceramic fillings, saving patients time and inconvenience.

What is CEREC® 3D?
CEREC® 3D was initially a word made up to describe in German (where CEREC was developed by the Siemens Corporation which spun it off to outside investors and who took the name Sirona Corporation) CEramic REConstruction of natural tooth structure.  Other more entrepreneurial marking types reclassified it as an acronym for Chairside Economical Restoration of Esthetic Ceramics. Translated, it means that a dentist can economically restore damaged teeth in a single appointment using a high-quality ceramic material that matches the natural color of other teeth. 

    This means one visit crowns, veneers and onlays
with no “temporaries” to fall off and no second visit -- think of the time, local anesthetic needles and pain this saves!

With no second visit there is:

• No second trip to my office,
• No second visit shot to numb the teeth,
• No second uncovering of the prepared tooth structure, and
• No second visit trauma to the tooth from exposing, cleaning off temporary cement and irritating the pulp and nerve tissue a second time for permanent cementation.
  
  All of which may increase long term tooth sensitivity, which we saw with the two visit crown procedure when an outside lab is used. Then we would prepare the tooth, make an impression with that gloppy impression material in the big tray and cement a temporary on the tooth during the first visit. The impression would go to the outside lab, where a group of technicians would make the crown. When the crown returned from the lab, and sometimes there were delays and the need to reschedule the second visit, you would have to come in, get injected again and the crown would be fit and then permanently cemented.

How does the instrument work?
CEREC® 3D uses CAD/CAM (Computer Aided Design/Computer Aided Manufacturing) technology, incorporating a camera, computer and milling machine in one instrument. The dentist uses a special camera to take an accurate picture of the damaged tooth. This optical impression is transferred and displayed on a color computer screen, where the dentist uses CAD technology to design the restoration. Then CAM takes over and automatically creates the restoration while the patient waits. Finally, the dentist bonds the new restoration to the surface of the old tooth. The whole process of design and milling the restoration takes about one hour.

What does this innovation mean for a patient?
A tooth-colored restoration means no more silver-mercury fillings discoloring smiles. The filling is natural -looking, compatible with tissue in the mouth, anti-abrasive and plaque resistant. Dentists no longer need to create temporaries or take impressions and send them to a lab. Because of this, the traditional second visit has been eliminated.

What Kinds of Procedures Can It Perform?

• Partial Crowns
• Complete Crowns
• Porcelain Inlays and Onlays
   -- which preserve healthy tooth structures
• Porcelain Veneers or Laminates

Inlay	Onlay	Crown

What Are the Advantages CEREC® 3D Offers?

• The dentist performs the restoration in a single session, usually in about one-two hour(s).
• No need for the dentist to make an impression and send it out to a lab that is out of the dental office.
• No return visits for the patient.
• The restoration is natural looking, as it is made out of tooth-colored ceramic material.
• Ceramic material is biocompatible, high-grade, anti-abrasive and plaque-resistant.
• Metal-free -- no silver-colored fillings.
• Allows dentist to save more of the healthy tooth.
• Extremely precise.

CEREC® 3D has over a decade of clinical research and documentation to support the technology. The thousands of CEREC® Vita Porcelain restorations have been proven precise, safe and effective and now there are more options with the introduction and use of other porcelains with other esthetic properties. Now there are other manufactureres as well (Ivoclar and 3M) which have years of research as well and provide a number of alternative materials to aid in the color match and wear characteristics of the adjacent natural teeth.

If only David Letterman's dentist had CEREC then the following "rant" might not have occurred.

David Letterman -- We have a solution for your Problem!

In this video clip, Dave talks About how his dentist approached fixing his cracked tooth the old way --- without  One Visit CEREC 3D!  David Letterman  had complained on his show that there should be some kind of technology that can do a crown in one appointment now days! (After all he went for his routine medical check up and had coronary bypass heart surgery the same day!)

Click on the Play Button to see David Letterman's Video Rant about his Teeth Problems

David cracked a tooth and went to his dentist who gave him "Novocain" and drilled his tooth down to a peg for a crown. After biting on horrible stuff for the impression, the dentist made a temporary that did not fit and then told him to come back in two weeks. After only a day the temporary fell out and he still has to wait two more weeks for the lab to make his crown. In the end, he is left hoping the crown would fit and come out all right.

Tony Danza Goes to Dr Mark Morin for a Smile Makeover for one of his Deserving Viewers

 Tony Danza’s staff selected a deserving school teacher and Dr. Mark Morin used CEREC for an amazing smile makeover.

Many members of my office staff and I have taken several courses with Dr. Mark Morin (in NY, NJ, CT and MI) and were very impressed with him. He has done over 17,000 CEREC restorations and teaches other dentists to use CEREC technologies all over the country as well as in his state of the art office that is also a regional training center for CEREC.

You can see the 5 minute clip by Clciking the Play button above.