South Shreveport Dental is making the process of crowns a lot easier for patients with revolutionary technology called the CEREC by Sirona.

The CEREC is a 3D intraoral camera that sends a live color video feed to a computer where data is saved and transformed into a virtual crown making a single visit crown possible for patients.

“A single visit crown is a full coverage restoration that is made in the office while you wait,” Dr. Andrew Simpson of South Shreveport Dental said.

“Traditionally, crowns are prepared in two visits. The first visit includes a round of anesthesia, preparation of the tooth to be restored, and a wet impression which notoriously doesn’t happen to taste like grandma’s famous pecan pie. In fact, the material is made of a polyvinyl siloxane, not an ingredient you’d find in your pantry, more comparable to a Goodyear tire. From there, a plastic temporary is fabricated and is left on with temporary cement for two to three weeks. After losing your temporary a couple times and subsequent sensitivity from the underlying tooth structure, frustration settles in. In the meantime, the impression is sent to a lab where your crown is being made. The second visit includes another round of anesthesia at times, a try-in of the crown, and adjustments. Rarely, the crown will be returned for major adjustment.”

New technology provided by the CEREC gives patients instant gratification integrating with Sirona Galileos 3D cone beam CT technology allowing the doctor and patient to see what is possible, giving the patient realistic expectations.

“With CEREC, I can scan a missing tooth space and design the ideal crown then tell it what implant I will be using. From there, I save this as a file and send it to the Galileos software where it stitches that plan over the missing space and I can virtually see the crown and implant overlaid in 3D space within the jawbone to see if the ideal placement is possible,” Simpson said. “If not, we simply plan to place bone grafts around the implant to get the implant where we need it for the crown (the whole reason for the procedure) and not the other way around.”

Hundreds of doctors are utilizing CEREC across the country, but very few have taken the leap to integrate 3D imaging like South Shreveport Dental.

“Within 5-10 years, I believe this will be the standard of care,” he said.

The CEREC simplifies the process of creating a crown. Simpson adds that no temporary or impression is required for single crown visits.

A “digital impression” eliminates the traditional gooey impression, and is more accurate since there is no distortion from impression materials. This allows a better fit and less adjustments or remakes, which also saves time. After the digital impression is taken by the small camera in 1-2 minutes, the doctor reviews and sometimes modifies the proposed design. The computer uses thousands of algorithms and an anatomical database to propose the design.

When satisfied with the design, the information is immediately sent to a milling unit that mills the custom crown in approximately seven minutes. From there, it is tried in the mouth to verify the fit and bite and adjusted before being fired in a furnace to bring the ceramic to its final hardness, color, and strength.

“By adjusting the crown before firing the restoration in the furnace, no rough spots are left on the material,” Simpson said. “These materials are so strong they do not fracture under 400 mPa of compression, more than our chewing forces. You also will not have to undergo a second appointment or a second round of anesthesia.”

This technology is available for everyone willing to wait an extra 30 to 40 minutes while the crown is fabricated. This is a small price to pay when not having to struggle with a temporary for two weeks.

Patients can even see the benefits of wearing these personally fabricated crowns.

“These crowns are made of all porcelain so there is no greying of the gumline typically found in porcelain fused to metal crowns of the past,” Simpson said. “Also, these crowns come in several shades and can be stained and glazed to characterize them to blend with adjacent teeth.”

The strength and accuracy of these materials used in fabricating the crown are much improved.

“In the past five years, I have had one fracture, and it was not due to a material defect,” Simpson said. “There’s never any guarantee due to the multitude of factors such as systemic health, diet, hygiene, etc. but we hope that after placing these restorations we will never encounter a problem. Home care and six month check ups are always a must to maintain oral health. In fact, at South Shreveport Dental, all work involving material fabrication such as crowns, fillings, inlays, onlays, etc. are warrantied up to five years. The only requirement is that you follow through on your six month checkups to maintain health where a toothbrush just can’t reach. Restorations that last five years typically last several more years, even decades.”

CEREC is not limited to crowns. We can do partial crowns such as onlays and inlays (conserving healthy tooth structure), veneers, implant abutments (porcelain connecting an implant to an implant crown), and implant crowns.

South Shreveport Dental also offers an industry leading $99 new patient visit for a complete exam with imaging as well as a free limited exam and X-ray for emergency toothache appointments.

“We often utilize this technology from your very first visit. Please come by and let our family of experts show your family how we’re changing everything from comfort to treatment outcomes. We pay attention to every detail of your experience because we know you have many options out there. We will always strive through education, training, technology and personable care to be the best we can be. We are all excited to be utilizing such advanced technology and every day we see the benefits. Team morale is at an all time high and we are so excited to come to work each day and do things the right way with the best techniques, materials, methods and technology on the market. We truly believe that.”