Saturday, October 29, 2011

The Basics of the CEREC Dental Implant CAD/CAM System

By David Lawrence, MD


CEREC technology is a CAD/CAM system where people receive a crown in one procedure and you do not have to receive a temporary porcelain crown. Up until recently, CAD/CAM was not advanced to the point where this was possible. So indidviduals needed to receive a temporary crown and then weeks subsequent get the final implant fabricated and implanted.

CEREC is an acronym for ceramic reconstruction, and porcelain crowns have been milled for 25 million teeth since the technology first was invented.

Along with porcelain crowns, inlays, onlays, veneers can be prepared utilizing several ceramic material types.

With CEREC technology folks may receive a brand new crown on the same day, and that crown is very strong, durable, and is acceptable to be used within hours after the procedure. The crown is placed start to finish with tooth preparation, anesthesia, impressions, ceramic fabrication, and implantation. The surgery entails grinding the tooth down, taking a picture of the tooth, and then transmitting that info to the computer, with the software designing the implant specifically for you.

More specifically once the software renders the specific implant for your mouth, that information is then sent to the CEREC computer. This computer allows the machine to mill the porcelain crown, and the porcelain crown is then checked specifically for your mouth. To make sure that it was made properly for your mouth, the implant is checked against your bite, along with making sure that the appropriate color of the porcelain block was chosen to complement the rest of the teeth in your mouth.

The implant is fashioned using diamond burs

The dental materials used for the crowns match the composition of natural tooth structure. So when hot or cold foods or drinks are consumed the implant material will expand and/or contract at rates about half way in between enamel and dentin. It also deteriorates at about the same enamel.

Once it is figured out that the crown is satisfactory to your bite, the crown is then glazed, polished, and prepared for implantation.

So why is this advantageous? Reasons include time savings, as patients won't need more than one trip for the procedure and only one anesthesia. Another advantage is the tooth structure is conserved nicely, as the patient may not need a full conventional crown with partial coverage doing the trick.

The implants are strong porcelain, better than the hand layered variety. The aesthetics are amazing.




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