Crowns and bridges once meant numerous time-consuming trips to the dentist. Getting a crown or bridge involved several appointments to complete all stages of treatment, plus wait times for a prosthetic tooth to be returned from an outside lab.
Today there is a better, more time-efficient way to restore your smile with a crown or a bridge. With our CEREC single-visit crowns and bridges, you need just one appointment to get a natural-looking, custom-fit, long-lasting crown or bridge!
CEREC stands for Chairside Economical Restoration of Esthetic Ceramics, or CEramin REConstruction. CEREC technology was first developed in Germany and has been around for more than 35 years. Dentsply Sirona, the company behind CEREC, is constantly improving the CEREC technology, ensuring it is one of the most advanced dental technologies available today.
To create a crown with CEREC, we first take a comprehensive digital scan of your mouth, using either our advanced Primescan or Omnicam intraoral scanners. The information gathered by these scanners then generates a detailed, full-color, three-dimensional model in the advanced CEREC software.
Based on this model, the CEREC machine then fabricates your custom crown. The precise details collected by the scanner mean that CEREC is able to create a more accurately shaped crown for a comfortable fit and fewer adjustments once it has been placed. One of the biggest advantages of CEREC is convenience. Using CEREC, we are able to offer our patients single-visit crowns. Patients no longer have to deal with messy impression trays, uncomfortable temporary crowns, or the wait time for an outside lab to fabricate a crown.
CEREC allows us to create precise, custom-fitted crowns right in our office while you wait, eliminating the need for multiple appointments. You can even watch your crown being created in the display window of our CEREC machine.
Another advantage of CEREC crowns is that they contain no metals. Formerly, crowns were made of a combination of pressed ceramic and metal. Over time, the metal base of a traditional crown can become visible along the gumline, leading to unsightly discoloration. As they are made entirely of ceramic, CEREC crowns will never cause the issues that crowns containing metal create. CEREC crowns are milled from an individual block of ceramic material that is proprietary to Dentsply Sirona and CEREC.
A crown made with CEREC ceramic can be matched to the exact hue of your surrounding teeth, making the crown practically unnoticeable. Unlike crowns made with metal, CEREC crowns look just like your natural teeth and will never fade or become discolored. Additionally, CEREC crowns don’t just look good; they are also extremely durable and long-lasting. With proper care and regular dental health care visits, a CEREC crown can last ten to fifteen years or longer!
In our office, we can use CEREC crowns for a number of different treatments. CEREC creates perfect crowns for dental implants; to protect a tooth when a filling is not an option; to prevent a cracked tooth from sustaining further damage; and to cap a tooth that has undergone root canal therapy.
In addition to using CEREC to create custom crowns, we also are able to offer our patients CEREC-created bridges and partial crowns. Made in our CEREC machine, these dental restorations offer all of the same advantages as CEREC crowns.
Dental bridges are an additional way we use CEREC to give our patients the best treatment outcomes. We would recommend a bridge to a patient who has one or more missing teeth. A bridge works by replacing the missing teeth with prosthetic teeth that are anchored by implant-supported crowns.
Using our CEREC technology, we can create a bridge that closely resembles the teeth lost and that is the same hue as the surrounding teeth. CEREC bridges, when anchored using CEREC crowns, fit snugly along the gumline and will not shift or slip. We can also offer our patients partial crowns created with CEREC. We would recommend a partial crown for a patient whose tooth had sustained some damage or enamel loss but is otherwise healthy.
A partial crown can help a tooth that may have lost protective enamel from excessive clenching or grinding or from severe acid erosion. Teeth that have been chipped or have discoloration in just a small area might also be improved by a partial crown. Creating a partial crown with CEREC is much like creating a complete crown. We prepare the tooth for placement of the partial crown and then scan it with one of our intraoral scanners. The CEREC software then sends a 3D model to the CEREC machine for milling.
CEREC partial crowns ensure that vulnerable teeth are protected from further damage. Getting a partial crown at the first signs of tooth trouble can save you from having to get a full crown in the future.
If you need a crown or a bridge, you might be dreading the time involved or have concerns about the finished appearance. With CEREC technology, Bliss Dental Group can help you to protect and maintain a beautiful, healthy smile in far less time than ever before!
If you think that CEREC single-visit crowns and bridges might be the solution for you, contact our office today to schedule a consultation!
