Dental crowns have long been used to reinforce teeth that may be damaged, chipped, or stained, restoring a full tooth profile that closely matches the look of your natural teeth through the properties of ceramic materials.
A long-standing drawback of crowns has been the need for custom manufacture at an external lab. The tooth that’s receiving the crown needs preparation for a proper fit. Traditionally after this preparation, your dental team would take an impression to send out for manufacture and you’d be fitted with a temporary crown to protect the tooth while you waited.
RR Dentistry in Georgetown, Texas, proudly offers CEREC® same-day crowns to solve the manufacturing delay. The secret is in small-scale computer aided design and milling (CAD/CAM) right here in our office. Better still, there’s no need for clunky dental impression trays. CEREC offers an incredible improvement to the dental crown process.
Chipped, cracked, or otherwise damaged teeth can be vulnerable to further damage in the future. The same is true for teeth with large or multiple fillings or those with root canals. The natural tooth remains viable but needs additional support.
That’s where crowns shine. They reinforce your natural tooth, providing extra strength and protection from damage. In many cases, a crown can match the natural appearance of surrounding teeth, particularly important if the tooth in question is visible when you smile.
To fit a crown, your dentist reshapes the natural tooth to accept the crown. Next comes a dental impression to provide the basis for your custom-made crown, and then manufacturing takes place.
In the past, that meant sending the impression to a dental laboratory. In the meantime, temporary crowns protected the prepared tooth. These temps may be a different material that doesn’t match your other teeth, and there’s also a risk that they could come loose because they aren’t fastened with the same dental cements. You may need to wear the temporary crown for up to two weeks while waiting for your permanent one.
The principles behind a CEREC same-day crown are the same as for conventional crowns with one key difference. You can ditch the temporary crown because we can prepare your tooth, take a digital impression, and mill your custom crown in a single day.
The digital impression serves as the programming information necessary to create a three-dimensional digital model of your tooth. Your crown is then ready for chairside milling.
It starts with a block of ceramic matched to the color of your teeth. It takes less than 20 minutes for the CEREC milling machine to shape the block to perfectly fit over your prepared tooth.
There’s no temporary crown and no return visit. CEREC can also produce overlays, if your tooth doesn’t require a full crown.
If you need a dental crown, find out more about how CEREC can help optimize your smile. You can schedule a consultation by calling our office directly or through the “Book online” link on this page. It takes just one short session to add the protection of a CEREC same-day crown. Make an appointment today.
