Why Should I Chose CEREC Crowns Over Other Types of Crowns?

CEREC crowns use CAD/CAM technology which is the future of dentistry.  This technology is also being used by the dental labs to fabricate crowns.  It is very accurate and convenient for the patient.  Your tooth is scanned and then read by the computer for fabrication.  With a conventional method of making a crown, a dental impression is made of the tooth.  First of all, the impression needs to be done properly to get a good imprint of the tooth and impression material is very sensitive to temperature and time.  Then it is sent to a dental lab where it is poured up by a lab worker.  Once again, the pour up accuracy is determined by method, temperature, and time of pour.  So without getting too detailed, you can see already how more accurate a scanned impression would be of your tooth and the accuracy is going to affect the fit of the crown.  When the crown is being designed on the computer, the dentist can make many changes.  In my opinion, the dentist who just prepared your tooth has an advantage of being able to do the best read of the margins and do a custom design of the new crown.  Even the determination of tooth shade and customization is best determined chairside rather than just sending one shade on a lab slip.  We have several materials and types of porcelain that we can use with the CEREC machine which are the same choices that dental labs use.  I think that you are always going to get a strong, natural looking crown ( with no metal), when you go to a dentist that can provide a CEREC crown.  Be careful of the dentists that put the CEREC crowns down because it usually means they have never made one and they have not made the considerable investment and committment to the new technology that will be here to stay.

Whether you choose a CEREC crown over a lab crown depends on your expectations and what satisfies them. If you aren't too picky about the esthetic result and are primarily concerned about a decent fit and function in a single appointment crown then CEREC is for you. There are a lot of different shade porcelain blocks available now and some blend in fairly nicely. But not always. This becomes more challenging as you move to the front teeth. Unless the dentist is willing to spend additional time in his lab custom staining and glazing then firing in a porcelain furnace and all of the other extra time-consuming laboratory steps needed to make this esthetically acceptable it will most likely have a generic appearance.......speaking from experience as a former CEREC dentist.