Same-Day Crowns

What CEREC technology is, is it's a in-office milling process. Where traditionally when a patient needed a crown, the tooth would be prepared, a traditional gooey impression would be taken of the patient's tooth, then that impression would be sent to the laboratory, a temporary would be made, and the patient would leave for two weeks. That was the traditional way. And that's a technique that's still used. However, now with CEREC technology, the tooth is prepared the same way, but instead of a gooey impression, we're taking digital images of the tooth. And from those digital images, we then create a digital model. And from that digital model, we then design the crown that's going to be milled. So then, once the crown is designed on the acquisition unit or the computer, then it's sent to a different machine, basically like a lathe that cuts the porcelain, and that's done all in the office while the patient's waiting. Once the crown is cut and prepared by the milling machine, it's then tried in the patient's mouth, adjusted, and then sent in to our lab for about 15 minutes or so to polish and glaze it and make it nice and shiny, and then it gets cemented in, in the same day. So now there's no temporaries, the patient doesn't have to wait two weeks, it's done immediately, there's no second appointment, there's no second injection, and it's basically a great way to get the procedure done quickly and not have the patient return for multiple visits.