Getting a dental impression is never a pleasant or comfortable procedure, but for those individuals who have an active gag reflex, the thought of suffering through the process is enough to cause nightmares. With the new digital impression your tooth is scanned and then read by the computer for fabrication of a crown.
CEREC’s CAD/CAM technology is very accurate and convenient for the patient. With a conventional method of making a crown, a dental impression is made of the tooth. First of all, the impression needs to be done properly to get a good imprint of the tooth and impression material is very sensitive to temperature and time. Then it is sent to a dental lab where it is poured up by a lab worker. Once again, the pour up accuracy is determined by method, temperature, and time of pour. So without getting too detailed, you can see already how more accurate a scanned impression would be of your tooth and the accuracy is going to affect the fit of the crown. When the crown is being designed on the computer, the dentist can make many changes. The dentist who just prepared your tooth has an advantage of being able to do the best read of the margins and do a custom design of the new crown. Even the determination of tooth shade and customization is best determined chairside rather than just sending one shade on a lab slip. We have several materials and types of porcelain that we can use with the CEREC machine which are the same choices that dental labs use.
