Do you have a fractured or cracked tooth? Maybe you had an accident, or you simply haven’t been taking care of your teeth like you should. Whatever the reason, you’re going to need a crown.
You might not be a Princess Kate or a Prince William. In our Glen Ellyn, IL practice you still get the royal treatment when it comes to your crown, with CEREC.
When a royal wants something, they want it right when they need it, right when it’s asked for. CEREC allows you to do the same thing! Conventional crowns (and bridges, for that matter, we just couldn’t think of a clever way to tie that to the royal family) can take multiple appointments to design, make, and install.
CEREC uses advanced technologies to reduce the time it takes to complete a crown or bridge down to a single appointment. CEREC has other advantages as well!
CEREC VS. Conventional Dental Restorations
Before CEREC, getting a crown or bridge (collectively called dental restorations) was a long, drawn out process that could take weeks to complete. The most lengthy part of the procedure doesn’t even involve the patient. The longest part of the procedure is waiting for the restoration to actually be made.
After the first appointment, the dentist uses an impression (mold) of the patient’s teeth and uses it to design the needed restoration.
Next, the milling process begins. This is the point in the process where the restoration is actually made. Some dentists have in-house milling facilities, but most don’t. This means that the dentist would have to order the restoration from a specialized lab. Even if a dentist had the required equipment to make the crown on the premises, it still takes weeks to complete the job. Eventually though the patient comes in for a second appointment to have the restoration installed.
All this waiting isn’t just inconvenient for the patient: it’s dangerous!
While the restoration is being milled, the patient wears a temporary crown. Temporary crowns can break easily, and the tooth can become seriously infected. If this happens, the patient not only has a broken temporary crown to deal with, but also a root canal.
Conventional restorations are also limited in terms of design. That means there is a limit to how much damage a conventional restoration can repair. For example, if you have a tooth that is broken close to the gum, a conventional crown won’t be able to save the tooth, and it will need to be extracted.
Conventional restorations are also held together by metal; while that might sound durable, they are constructed in such a way that they tend to “shear off” (break) inside the mouth. This happens more than you think, and when it does, you have to start the whole process all over again to get it replaced (including the impression of your teeth; it’s not like they fit in your file very easily!). The metal could also cause an allergic reaction in some patients.
It’s easy to understand why people are so upset when they learn they need a crown or bridge installed!
How is CEREC Better?
CEREC stands for Chairside Economical Restoration of Esthetic Ceramics.
Chairside, because everything happens in-house. The entire process, from impression to installation. No need for the dentist to wait for your restoration to come back from the lab (and no chance that the designs for your restoration won’t be lost in the mail, either!).
Economical, because CEREC uses advanced technologies that simply leave conventional methods in the dust.
CEREC eliminates all the wasted time usually needed to design, make, and install a restoration.
Instead of taking a physical impression of your teeth (which is also no fun for the patient), CEREC uses advanced imaging technology to take a digital impression of your teeth. This has a few advantages:
One, it is a much faster process than creating a physical impression and is much more comfortable,
Two, it is much more accurate, and
Three, if your restoration breaks, the digital impression can be stored indefinitely as a computer file. If you ever have a broken crown or bridge, a new one can quickly be milled using the digital impression made for your original restoration.
After the digital impression is made, it is fed into specialized software that creates a design based on this extremely accurate “map” of your teeth and mouth. Your dentist may also make some adjustments to the design based upon your needs.
Restoration of Esthetic Ceramics: There is no need to send anything to an off-site location to make a restoration, but most importantly CEREC technology rapidly accelerates the milling process. With the design complete, an auto-milling machine will create your restoration out of a single block of porcelain. Porcelain is ideal because it is hypoallergenic, and it comes in many shades that match your natural teeth, making your restoration virtually invisible to anyone else.
Because the design and milling machine are so precise and fast, you can have a restoration that wasn’t possible just a few years ago, saving you from a painful and possibly traumatic tooth extraction (which can often involve surgery!).
Installation: Incredibly, all this activity happens in-house, and in the same appointment. This is how CEREC eliminates most of the trouble with dental restorations, by doing away with all that wasted time. This also means that temporary restorations are a thing of the past, and a patient’s chances of having an infection as a result shrink to zero.
Make an Appointment Today!
Conventional crowns and bridges put your oral health at risk and waste your valuable time, and when compared to the quality and look of a CEREC restoration, they just don’t stack up.
If you need a dental restoration (a crown or a bridge), choose CEREC and Smile Glen Ellyn!
Call us at 630-858-8800, or use our online appointment form to connect with us and book your appointment now!
