…and you have no time to wait for a crown to be made because of an upcoming wedding. Have you ever heard of Cerec? There are dentists who use this technique to repair your tooth (make your crown) in one appointment and I happen to be one. Previously, if you broke a tooth you had to have “goop” impressions, have the tooth prepped, then have a temporary crown for 2-3 weeks.
The common problem here is that the temporary crown often comes off at an inconvenient time and or location. Then you either have to have a new one made and have to find another dentist to make it for you (if you happen to be out of town at the time) until you can get back in for the permanent crown seat. And , since the crown has been made by a lab, it may not fit! Then you have to start the whole process all over again.
When you have it done using Cerec in my office the process is all done in one visit (not temporaries or labs) and you walk out with your permanent crown. The Cerec technique uses CAD/CAM technology which is performed with an aquisition unit (computer with an infrared camera) with which a picture of your broken tooth is taken (an optical impression instead of a “goop” impression) and then a picture of the prepared tooth.
Your new crown is then designed with great accuracy to match your original unbroken tooth and this information is sent by radio frequency to the milling machine in my office which mills your new crown out of a solid block of porcelain in the shade to match your tooth. The crown is polished and adjusted (if necessary) and permanently bonded in place. The entire procedure takes less than 2 hours.
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