Are you someone that likes visiting the dental office as little as possible? Are you afraid of needles? Are you a patient that doesn’t have much time due to busy schedules? Or maybe your insurance is ending at the end of the month and you don’t have the time to wait three weeks for a crown to come back from the laboratory. Or maybe you’re the type of person that likes the latest technology!
Well, if you’ve ever had a crown done you know that it requires at least two appointments maybe three. That means getting anesthetic twice. Then there’s the waiting period of three weeks while you wait for the laboratory to fabricate the ‘real’ crown. During this waiting period you are given a temporary crown that could come off at any given time if you are not careful. And let’s face it, these temporaries are rough to the tongue, don’t always look that nice, catch food, can cause sensitivity and last but not least have come off in the past.
Well, we have the answer to all your questions.
Yes, it’s called “crowns in a day”. How is this possible you ask?
It’s the latest dental technology called CAD/CAM (also called CEREC) which allows us to fabricate laboratory-grade crowns while you wait.
No more gooey impressions, no more plastic temporaries, no more food traps, no more irritation on your tongue or in your gums due to a rough temporary, but best of all, no more crowns coming off at the least desirable time.
The CEREC machine is a special computer that acts as a dental restoration tool, allowing dentists’ to restore a tooth and make crowns in a day.
Not only can the CEREC machine mill a crown. It also has the ability to replace fillings with computer generated fillings called inlays and onlays. Also, done all in one day.
Here's a video showing you very quickly how we do 'Dental Crowns In A Day':
The process of preparing the tooth is exactly the same.
The dentist examines and prepares your tooth for a crown or computer generated filling.
However, now instead of taking that gooey impression we all love and can take up to 4 minutes to set.
The tooth is scanned with a small scanning wand (also known as an intra-oral camera) which is attached to the computer.
As the wand is moved over the tooth the computer is taking numerous digital pictures of the preparation. In seconds the computer will generate an accurate 3D model of your tooth and the opposing arch.
Once the model is complete, it can be rotated and viewed from any perspective by the assistant and the patient. At this time the dental assistant will design the tooth with the patient. Once the design and finishing touches have been made and both assistant and patient are happy with the look of the crown the design is then sent to the on-site milling station. The assistant will then choose the type of ceramic block looking for two things.
First the block is chosen for the type of material which best suits the patients dentition and the bite. Once the type of material is chosen then we look for the perfect color match.
Once the block is set in the milling station the crown will be milled using diamond coated milling units which normally take up 6 to 15 minutes.
Once the crown is complete we verify the fit and esthetics of the crown and make any changes we deem necessary.
Once these changes are made the crown is then polished and/or glazed and permanently cemented into the patient’s mouth.
It’s all done in one day with no temporary crown and no second visit. No gooey impression and no post-operative sensitivity.
Everything is done from start to finish in one appointment.
