AFFORDABLE DENTAL CROWNS IN ONE VISIT, WELLSFORD, RODNEY, AUCKLAND

In the past, or in offices where CEREC is not used, if a patient needed a crown (a cap over a problem tooth) or a partial crown, it took at least two visits separated by two weeks to fix. The first visit took 1 ½ hours to shape the tooth and take a gooey impression that was then sent to an external laboratory for preparing the crown. The patient will require a temporary crown until the final crown is ready to be fitted, usually a two week wait. The second visit was another hour to remove the temporary, clean things up, and glue the restoration onto the tooth. At Wellsford Dental, we use CEREC to take a digital impression with a camera wand and then design, fabricate and install the restoration in one appointment. No second appointment, no temporaries, no sticky impressions … done!

• Defective filling and any tooth decay removed – 20 minutes
• A small camera painlessly takes an optical 3D image of the cavity – 5 minutes
• Designing your new tooth on screen – 10 – 20 minutes
• Milling of the image data remote from the patient  – 15 minutes
• The new restoration is fitted, bonded with a unique light and polished – 20 – 30 minutes
• Estimated total time – 70 – 90 minutes

CEREC reconstructions are typically a little less expensive than conventional restorations. Huge time savings are made as everything is done in one visit, with no need to make separate appointments and wait for your new tooth.

Your new tooth can exactly match your existing teeth, we have various colour grades of ceramic to choose from. The ceramic material enables light to pass through it, in a similar way to your natural teeth. Your new tooth will look perfectly natural.

CEREC was developed by Dr Werner Moermann and Dr Markus Brandistini in 1985 at the University of Zürich in Switzerland. Since this time CEREC has undergone continuous technical and clinical developments. CEREC is one of the most advanced products in the world of dentistry with over six million restorations worldwide. Worldwide, a CEREC restoration is placed every 20 seconds, and patients love the ease and aesthetic perfection of CEREC made crowns.

We are very proud to be the only practice offering the Cerec Omnicam to mill a same day crown in the North Auckland area and one among a growing number of dentists in New Zealand offering this advanced technology.

Our dentists have been extensively trained to create aesthetically perfect restorations using CEREC. Training is conducted at Auckland by certified Sirona CEREC experts. Continuing education is held in Sydney at the Sirona Centre for Dentistry, Australia. The Sirona Centre for Dentistry is a dental technology training and education centre, comprising a 20 station simulation clinic for hands-on training with four fully functional surgeries, digital dental laboratory, 2D/3D X-ray and more, all taking training and education to another level. Ongoing active networking through the growing NZ CEREC dental community also greatly contributes to dentist’s knowledge and expertise.

Embracing digital technology causes an office to operate with its eyes wide open to the ongoing possibilities of better overall dental care at a greater value to patients. The CEREC dentist is the diagnostician, surgeon and lab. In other words, “the buck stops here”, as the saying goes. The CEREC dentist knows the intimate details of the dental situation start-to-finish and has infinite flexibility in producing an excellent result and in turn you get an aesthetically perfect crown individually designed and crafted for you.

Yes, the good dental labs in New Zealand and our milling unit use the same exact materials. The material of choice these days is Ivoclar’s Emax, GC Cerasmart and Enamic by Vita; strong, beautiful, accurate, great bonding strength and biologically healthy! Dozens of different materials are available for different applications depending on the individual requirements.

The answer lies in the concept of “minimally invasive”.  When a dentist is able to fabricate a restoration same-day and with infinite choices for the design of the restoration, the result is the preservation of natural tooth structure and an optimum bond of the restoration to the tooth.  Gone are the days of every cavity or replaced filling turning into a full coverage crown.  Instead, partial or minimal coverage crowns are the norm.

CEREC digital technology allows us to copy a patient’s existing teeth with amazing accuracy and precision. One application of this is when a patient presents with a tooth that feels and looks great but is decayed or fractured.  This can be surprisingly complicated under some circumstances such as, fixing one single front tooth perfectly, managing a super sensitive bite, fixing a tooth under a partial denture, maintaining a patient who clenches and grinds heavily, helping an Alzheimer/dementia/memory loss patient who needs rapid care with perfect results. By digitally copying all or just what we like about a tooth, we can then fabricate a restoration nearly identical to the original tooth.  This is impossible without digital copying using CEREC and has proven to be perhaps the biggest advantage that patients immediately recognize. With CEREC technology, we are also able to create implant crowns, dental bridges, veneers and fillings.

CEREC is made by Sirona. You can learn more on their website.