Crowns in One Hour, Can it Really be Done?

Crowns have been used to restore decayed and broken teeth for over a hundred years. Gold crowns were the best for many years. Then people wanted a restoration that was the color of a tooth. A method was invented to make porcelain (glass) bond to metal. It was used for bath tubs, kitchen sinks and many other things as well. Dentistry applied the technology to making a crown for a tooth; porcelain fused to metal crown.

The crown can now be made to look like a tooth in shape and color and is quite strong. The metal needs to be strong and not flex. If it flexes, the porcelain will fracture off. Also, the metal is dark. It needs to be blocked out by opaque porcelain.

Thin the color porcelain can be layer on to give the desired color. The problem is that unlike natural tooth enamel, a porcelain fuse to metal crown does not allow light to come through. This leaves a dark line at the gum line of the crown, which can be less than unattractive.

Today, technology has evolved so that porcelain crowns can stand on their own with no metal involved. These all porcelain crowns transmit light through them and look natural; no dark gum line, no “opaqued” look.

However, all these crowns require at least two dental appointments to produce:

1. First dental visit to prepare the tooth and take impressions. The impressions are then sent to the dental lab which is where they produce the crown. In the meantime, a temporary crown is placed for about two weeks.
2. On the Second dental visit, the temporary crown is removed and the permanent crown is then cemented into place.

However, once again, technology has taken the crown process to the next level…

The Solution is CEREC!

With our CEREC machine, the entire process in about an hour, saving you that second dental visit and hours of your time:

1. First, the crown is made of 100% porcelain. It is cintered which means it is put under pressure and heat to make its qualities like that of enamal in hardness and wear.
2. Second, There is no impressions to take and send to the lab. The Cerec crown is made with a CAD / CAM machine. CAD stands for Computer Assisted Design and CAM is for Computer Assisted Machine. With the Cerec an infrared photo is taken of the tooth and brought into the computer. In the computer the dentist now designs the crown. Next, a block of porcelain is placed in a milling machine. The dentist then sends the crown design to the milling machine. The Cerec milling machine then takes that block of porcelain and mills out the crown. The milling process takes about 10 to 15 minutes.
3. Third, the porcelain crown is then removed from the mill. The dentist now cements the porcelain crown using a new generation of cements that bonds to the tooth and to the porcelain. This gives the new restoration additional strength. A good example is a thin piece of laminate is very weak and brittle on it’s own, but when bonded to wood it gains a great deal of strength.

Cerec crowns are very natural looking, have a very precise fit, are durable and can be made in one dental visit in about one hour saving you hours of your time. Call us for an appointment to learn how Cerec same-day crowns can transform your smile!