How CEREC Works
We use a highly-sensitive precision wand to digitally scan the section of your mouth where a dental restoration will be placed. As the wand scans the area, it builds a virtual model of your mouth on a screen right in front of your eyes. You and your doctor can fine-tune the area until the virtual model represents your mouth exactly.
Once the digital model of the dental restoration area have been finished, Family Dental Group will digitally design a restoration right there on the screen. It will be designed to be fully functional and fit exactly in the area where it needs to be place.
From there, this digital restoration will be sent to a milling machine where a color-matched block of porcelain will be precisely milled into the final restoration. This restoration is NOT a temporary, but rather the same restoration we expect to receive from a dental lab.
The final restoration is test-fitted to the area and any final adjustments are made before securely bonding the restoration to the tooth. You will walk out of our office wearing the final restoration in a single dental visit.
Single appointment dentistry is not too good to be true! Call us at (406) 541-2886 or request an appointment to see what CEREC can do for your specific situation.
Placing a Porcelain Crown In 1 Visit
Because our office can provide a dental crown in a single dental appointment, we do things a little different than other dental offices. We can skip the temporary molds and the time it takes to have a dental lab fabricate your final crown.
1. We start the crown procedure by reducing the overall size of the tooth that’s in need of a dental crown. Shaving off existing tooth structure allows for the new crown to fit properly and it also creates a foundation for the new crown to be bonded to.
2. Next, using our state-of-the-art CEramic REConstruction (CEREC) system, we will digitally scan the section of your mouth that has been prepared for the crown. This is done by using a special wand that can be easily positioned in your mouth to ensure an extremely accurate digital representation of the restoration area.
3. We will now be able to see a high-resolution 3D representation of the area and start to design a new crown that will fit perfectly over the prepared tooth. Our patients often love getting to see us create a new tooth for them in real time, right there on the screen.
4. Once the digital representation of the new crown has been created on the computer, we will send it off to our in-house milling machine. We place a block of porcelain that has been color-matched to the shade of your existing tooth into the milling machine and run the program. This amazing machine robotically fabricates a perfect crown restoration that is ready to be placed over the prepared tooth at this time. This crown is the final crown and NOT a temporary crown which means you have just received a new dental crown in a single dental appointment.
CEREC to the Rescue to Provide Same-Day Dentistry
Our patients benefit from single-visit restorations including crowns, inlays & onlays, white fillings and veneers using a very high-tech piece of dental equipment called CEREC.
CEREC stands for CEramic REConstruction and represents a process where we digitally scan the area of your mouth where the dental restoration will be placed, designing a replacement restoration right there, and finally milling the final restoration during the same appointment.
Our patients don’t have to walk around with bulky and uncomfortable temporary crowns and won’t have to come back for a second appointment for the final fitment and placement of the dental restoration. If you are in need of a dental restoration, chances are CEREC can provide it in just one visit. We invite you to call our dental office at (406) 541-2886 or request an appointment online and let us answer that question right then and there!