What Is CEREC?
CEREC, or Chairside Economical Restoration of Esthetic Ceramics, is a system utilized to provide restorations for our patients. This convenient system allows the doctor to design and fabricate a ceramic restoration in house, allowing them to provide patients with quality cosmetic dentistry, including one-visit crowns, veneers or bridges.
This system has revolutionized cosmetic dentistry, as patients are no longer required to visit the office multiple times in order to receive one treatment. Now, dentists can perform these procedures in-office on the same day.
How It Works
This system operates using four fundamental steps, outlined below
- The doctor will examine your teeth, identifying if there is a need for any ceramic restorations. If a need is identified, they will then remove the tooth decay or old filling.
- A team member will prepare your teeth to be photographed by a digital 3-D camera. Once prepped, the dentist will painlessly glide the CEREC camera over your teeth.
- Based on these digital images, the CEREC technology will create a custom restoration for the teeth that the doctor identified in the first step. This restoration is precise and customized to the patient's needs, matching tooth color and surrounding tooth shape.
- Finally, the dentist will secure the tooth into the patient's mouth.
The Benefits of CEREC
The convenience of CEREC makes it a favorable system. Some other benefits of CEREC include:
- No waiting, no temporary restorations
- A quick visit, taking about 1.5 - 2 hours
- A more comfortable process, requiring less anesthetic or numbing shots
- What appears to be a natural result - CEREC restorations are made of porcelain that blends in with the rest of the patient's teeth
- Preserves any healthy, existing tooth structure, instead of drilling it down altogether