CEREC® technology allows Dr. Shlafer to design and fabricate a porcelain (no metal) crown in one visit. To understand how CEREC® works, you may be interested in a little background of how a crown is constructed.
Laboratory crowns are usually made in two visits. On the first visit, your tooth is prepared by being slightly shaved down and reduced in size to allow for complete coverage by the ceramic crown material. An impression of your teeth is taken and then sent to the lab to be fabricated. During that time, you will wear a temporary crown that looks tooth colored and is secured with temporary cement. On your second appointment the temporary crown is removed and your lab crown is placed permanently. A CEREC® one visit crown is milled by computer to fit your tooth precisely, thus eliminating the laboratory. This technology is called “Computer-assisted design-Computer-assisted manufactured” or CAD-CAM. The company that is foremost in this technology is CEREC®. With the CAD-CAM technology, your porcelain crown is milled while you wait! These CEREC® crowns are made of pure ceramic. CEREC® technology can also be used to fabricate porcelain inlays. The advantages of CEREC®:
- Crowns are made in one appointment, saving you an additional follow up visit.
- Elimination of a temporary crown.
- CEREC® crowns have no metal.
If you are interested in having a CEREC® crown made, Dr. Shlafer can evaluate you to see if you are a candidate. Why wait to have that old metal crown or silver filling replaced with a non metal restoration? Find out what we can do to help today!