Imagine visiting the dentist and leaving your appointment with a custom restoration in place. With CEREC 3D, short for Chairside Economical Restoration of Esthetic Ceramics, this is exactly what can happen. This innovative dental procedure allows a dentist to economically restore damaged teeth in a single appointment with a high-quality, durable ceramic material that matches your natural tooth color. That means you receive your crown in just one visit! We can build a custom-fit, long lasting, natural colored crown the same day. No temporary crown, no second appointment, and no goopy-gaggy impression material with our digital scanner. CEREC 3D also enables dentists to save as much original tooth structure as possible and keep their patients gorgeous smiles in tact and/or enhanced.
The Science of CEREC
CEREC 3D uses CAD/CAM (Computer Aided Design/Computer Aided Manufacturing) technology, incorporating a camera, a computer, and milling machine in one instrument. First, your damaged tooth is prepared with a thin layer of reflective powder applied directly on the tooth’s surface. With a special camera, the dentist takes an optical impression of the damaged tooth, which is transferred to the computer and displayed on a color screen.
The CEREC Process
Your doctor will use CAD technology to design the restoration. Then, the CAM takes over and automatically creates the restoration. Using a high-speed diamond bur and a disk, the CAM mills the restoration out of a solid block of ceramic material. Once completed, the dentist will bond the new restoration to the surface of the old tooth. The whole process takes approximately one hour.