CEREC Restorations

All Ceramic CEREC® Restorations

CEREC® technology allows Meetinghouse Dental to design and mill solid-block ceramic crowns and onlays in a single visit.  No need for impressions, temporaries, delivery visits or a second time getting numb!  Ceramic restorations (crowns and onlays) are required when less than 50% of the natural tooth structure remains and a bonded composite filling will breakdown under occlusal forces if placed. 

How does CEREC® CAD/CAM work?

CEREC®'s bluecam LED camera captures an optical impression of your damaged tooth.  The camera communicates the optical impression to 3D CAD (Computer Aided Design) software that designs a digital restoration to the exact contours of the tooth to be restored. The data is sent to a milling chamber and the CAM (Computer Aided Manufacturing) technology automatically mills the crown or onlay with two high-speed diamond burs.  Ask to watch the milling process if you are interested!

CEREC® crowns and onlays are:

• highly biocompatible
• natural-looking
• mercury-free
• fluoride-free
• Bisphenol A and B free
• hypo-allergenic
• anti-abrasive
• plaque-resistant  
  

Crowns vs Onlays

Meetinghouse Dental creates both crowns and onlays on site from a solid, all ceramic block.  Whenever possible, onlays are preferred over full coverage crowns in order to preserve every millimeter of remaining healthy tooth structure.  Fuurthermore, less drilling is always favorable to maintaining a healthy nerve.  Onlays are just as strong as crowns.  CEREC®'s decades of clinical research and documentation indicate that 84.5% of all CEREC® restorations  - milled from solid-block ceramic rather than heat processed and layered over metal alloys in the lab - are still viable eighteen plus years after original placement in the mouth.  Again, longevity represents less trauma to the nerve of the tooth over the lifespan of that tooth.  

CEREC® restorations exhibit the same refractive qualities as natural tooth enamel for precise color match and the same thermal qualities as natural tooth enamel for ideal expansion and contraction.  Their similarity to natural tooth enamel eliminates the wearing of opposing teeth, a common problem with lab-fabricated porcelain-fused-to-metal and zirconia crowns. 

Finally, with CEREC®, there is no metal substructure; the oral galvanic current (see our section on oral galvanism) generated by lab-fabricated porcelain-fused-to-metal crowns is completely eliminated.

CEREC® onlays are another representation of the exquisite simplification that can characterize biologic dentistry in general!