You may already know about CEREC, or might have heard it mentioned when visiting Leeds City Dentalcare, but what exactly are these types of restorations and why are they so good? CEREC is a restoration that can be completed in just one visit to our Leeds surgery. This treatment can be used for crowns, veneers and inlays and onlays. It’s not something that is available everywhere, and it does use some pretty high-tech equipment. It is the perfect way to have a new porcelain restoration fitted really quickly, as normally these types of restorations take at least two weeks to complete.

How Does This Technology Work?

Your tooth will need to be prepared by Dr David Brown or another of our dentists here in our Leeds surgery in exactly the same way as it would for a normal restoration. Once your tooth is prepared the usual procedure would be to take an impression of your mouth, but in the case of CEREC restorations we simply take a digital image using a specialised camera. This image is converted into a computerised model which is used by our dentists in Leeds to design your restoration. The next step is to send this information to a milling machine which is right here in our Leeds surgery. Your new tooth is milled out of a single block of ceramic material, a process that can take up to half an hour to complete. The ceramic block is pre-shaded and will have been matched to your existing teeth. Once the milling machine has completed your new restoration then it will be finished and stained by our dentists before being polished or glazed to give a very natural looking false tooth. The final result is a precision made restoration that will exactly fit your prepared tooth, and which can then be cemented into place.

Advantages of Choosing a CEREC Restoration

The main advantage of choosing this type of restoration has to be its sheer speed. It is perfect if you need a replacement tooth in a hurry, especially as you’ll only need to visit our Leeds surgery the once. Another advantage is that you’ll only need to have one anaesthetic injection to complete the treatment, and you will not need to put up with temporary restorations that can sometimes fall out. CEREC restorations are excellent for certain cases, especially for inlays and onlays, or for crowns that are relatively near the back of the mouth.

When is it Better to Choose a Traditional Restoration?

There’s little doubt that CEREC restorations can be extremely good, but there are certain occasions when we may recommend patients go for more traditional restorations that require two or more weeks to complete. This might seem strange, especially given the fact that most people want to complete their dental treatment as quickly as possible, but traditional restorations can sometimes offer much more versatility. For example if you are having restorations on your front teeth you may be better off opting for traditional crowns or veneers. The reason for this lies in the way they are constructed. CEREC crowns and veneers are milled from a single block of material that only consists of one shade. In comparison a traditionally constructed crown or veneer will contain many different shades of porcelain that are able to replicate a natural tooth more fully. Each case is obviously different, and this is something we’ll discuss with you when you visit our Leeds surgery.