San Diego Dentist Dr. Ernest Wong Performs 1-Appointment CEREC Crowns wortechnologies.com Life - Coa

Having been practicing dentistry in San Diego for 22 years, every now and then I would get a phone call from an emergency patient who broke a tooth. In most cases, the usual way is to take an impression of the tooth, send it to a dental lab, fabricate a temporary crown and see the patient in two weeks when the permanent crown comes back from the lab. Well, the state-of-the-art CEREC machine changes all that.

Now, the patient with a broken tooth can have a new, custom-made porcelain crown cemented the same day. After the tooth is diagnosed to have a crown made, the tooth is "prepared" the usual conventional manner. Then I use an infrared camera to take a 3-dimensional picture of the tooth. The CEREC Biogenic software will calculate the dimension of the tooth and, based on my instructions, give me a proposal of what the restored tooth should look like. With some minor adjustments, this proposal will be sent to a "milling chamber" where the crown is milled out from a block of porcelain. I have a large inventory of blocks so that it is never a problem to match the crown to the exact shade and translucency. In a short 10-15 minutes, the crown is milled and is ready to be cemented.

There are a lot of advantages in using this CEREC machine. For the patients, they will get the crown the same day and no longer have to wait for two weeks or the second appointment. These days, seems like everyone has a very busy schedule. Who wants to come back for a second appointment, unless it is necessary? For the tooth, it gets the crown immediately, no chance for any contamination or sensitivity issue. For the clinician like myself, it is an opportunity to unleash my "artistic talent" and, at the same time, doing my job as a dentist to provide the best possible care!

Please visit my website at smile-dds.com to review actual cases of the amazing CEREC technology and my portfolio of clinical cases.

About the Author
Dr. Ernest Wong is a cosmetic dentist in San Diego. He has been practising dentistry since 1988. Dr. Ernest Wong may be contacted at http://www.smile-dds.com. Click here to view more articles by Dr. Ernest Wong.