Cerec: Dental Crowns In One Hour

By E. Taylor Meiser, DDS, PA

Crowns have been made to restore decayed and broken down teeth for over 100 years. Most of the time crowns require at least two dental appointments to produce; however, technology has taken the crown process to the next level. It’s called the CEREC.

The Cerec machine does this entire process in about an hour, saving you that second dental visit and hours of your time.

How It Works

First, the crown is made of 100% porcelain. It is sintered, which means it is put under pressure and heat to make its qualities like that of enamel in hardness and wear. Second, there are 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 Manufacture.

With the Cerec blue CAM, a 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 10-15 minutes.

Third, the porcelain crown is removed from the mill. The dentist cements the porcelain crown using a new generation of cements that bonds the tooth to the porcelain. This gives the new restoration additional 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.