CEREC and E4D One Visit Dental Crowns | Oceanside Dental Excellence

If you’re like most of our patients at Oceanside Dental Excellence, you welcome convenience in every aspect of life. In other words, straightforward processes with minimal disruption to your schedule.

Multiple Appointments Can Be a Hassle

When it comes to medical or dental procedures, convenience means the fewest visits possible. Hopefully, in only one visit.

Let’s explore dental crowns, for example. Most men and women need a restoration like a dental crown at some point in their life. A dental crown is one of the most versatile dental restorations. It covers the complete visible portion of a tooth and can repair a damaged tooth, a tooth with a large cavity, or a tooth that has undergone a root canal. A durable dental crown protects the remaining tooth, allows normal function, and prevents shifting of the surrounding teeth

Dental Crowns Used to Take at Least Two Appointments

The conventional dental crown procedure involves at least two visits. (Sometimes three or four depending on the situation.) On the first visit, the dentist would prepare the tooth and create an impression for the crown. To take impressions, the patient had to bite into a U-shaped tray filled with a thick, gooey substance (alginate or polyvinylsiloxane).

Then the dentist would send the impression to a dental lab to have the crown produced. This could take a couple of weeks. When the crown was finished, the patient would have to come back to the dentist to have it placed and cemented.

CEREC and E4D Same Day Crowns

Now, there are two visit systems. The brand names are CEREC and E4D. Both systems use CAD (Computer Aided Design) and CAM (Computer Aided Manufacturing) to design and construct a perfectly fitted crown.

CAD uses 3-D software that photographs teeth to create a precise model. In some dental practices, the patient can see the 3-D digital models on a screen during their visit.

CEREC uses an infrared camera to transmit the tooth’s exact shape to the CAD software. E4D accomplishes the same thing with laser technology. As mentioned previously, CAD is the modeling software. Once there is a precise 3-D digital scan, it’s time to actually manufacture the restoration. That is what the CAM machine does. CAM is the milling operation, in which a small bit-like device runs at extremely high speeds to precisely sculpt a custom-fitting crown out of a block of ceramic.

6 Steps For a One-Visit Dental Crown

Here is a recap of the entire same-day dental crown process:

Tooth Preparation. Your dentist will prepare the site for your crown by clearing away decay or portions of the damaged tooth.
Intraoral Scanning. Next, your dental professional will use an optical scanner to create a 3-D digital scan of the damaged tooth and surrounding teeth.
Restoration Design. With the 3-D images, the dentist will use CAD software to design the final restoration.
Milling. A milling machine uses the 3-D scan and chisels the crown from a single block of ceramic.
Sintering and Polishing. The dentist then stains or glazes to make the surface of the dental crown look like a natural tooth. Following that, the dentist polishes the restoration to perfection.
Cementation. Finally, the restoration is permanently attached to your tooth. (Colgate.com)

Did we mention that this can occur in only one visit?

Need a dental crown? Call us today to request an appointment.