Dentist Wants to Do CEREC on my Center Two Front Teeth. Would Lab Crowns Be Better?

It depends on your expectations and the dentist's expectations and skills. There are a small handful of CEREC dentists who might be able to pull this off for you. Very small. As a former owner of a CEREC the issue I had was that I could not make it live up to my expectations. It takes a highly skilled ceramist to make any crown or veneer look beautiful. Most dentists don't have these skills. But there are a few.  And it takes a ton of time back in their lab. In my hands after 3 years of trying and many advanced training courses it just didn't happen. In my opinion the best result for your situation is a great dentist and ceramist.

This can be a tough answer. The answer actually is: It Depends!  Cerec crowns in the right hands can be extroordinarily beautiful.  But, even an "Average" Cerec is very nice. The laboratory fabricated crown should be nice but it too depends on th eperson fabricating the crowns.  Most any esthetic dentist should be able to fabricate beautiful restorations either way if they are a cerec user.  Ask the dentist you are going to what their thoughts are.  I would say most often, dentists will say the lab crowns simply because they are not famililar with the cerec technology. 

You should be concerned with esthetics.  I would definitely not recommend that you have cerec crowns on the two front teeth.  Unless you want everyone to know you have two crowns.

Lab processed crowns have the potential to look far better than cerec crowns.

Best!

Dr. Alper

What it comes down to is do you like the quality of work your dentist does for you already?  Have you seen any of their cosmetic work done by a cerec?  Each of us dentist will have a differing opinion on this so ask your own dentist this question.  Aside from that, ask him/her to show you the crowns in your mouth pre-cementation to see if you like the quality of work.

You are asking a great question and the answer is the most beautiful corwns are done with layered porcelain built by a denatl lab.  The colors are layered in and the result is the most natural. (Feldsphathic Porcelain).  They are bonded on to the tooth.

Unfortunately, dark teeth can show through and we are doing more E-Max crowns to cover the darkness.  They are crowns with a opaque core that layer porcelain on top of the core to get the color.

Cerec crowns are great in the back but where you have color challenges, I suggest you talking more and finding an office that you can trust-Ask to look at pictures and talk to the staff.  They know.  I have a lab who customs my color with me-We have a oven to custom stain.  Hope that helps!