Often, when offering restorative dentistry, dental offices have to submit their plan for a prosthetic dental device to a dental laboratory for the appliance’s fabrication. The plan is primarily derived from a mold or impression of your mouth, and the laboratory, which is located miles away, creates the device, such as a porcelain crown, bridge or veneer, using the impression as a guide. Once the lab completes the device, it forwards the appliance to the dental office through the mail. The office staff then contacts you to schedule a subsequent appointment for the device’s placement.

Inconvenience of Office-to-Lab Fabrications

The office-to-lab-and-back procedure adds weeks to the timeline in which you are able to receive your full dental restoration. As a result, your restoration is not only time-consuming. It is also inconvenient

For example, if you are receiving a porcelain crown to complete a dental implant restoration for a single tooth, you will already have had several dental appointments. During one appointment, then dental implant is installed into your jawbone. After the installation of the titanium implant, the wound may require a couple of months to heal completely and stabilize through a process called osseointegration, which involves the fusion or integration of the dental implant with the bone of the jaw. Subsequently, an abutment or connector can be attached to the implant. Then, following a small healing period, a dental crown can be added to the abutment to complete the restoration. If the crown is made through traditional means, it will extend the completion of the restorative procedure by several weeks.

Dream Dental’s CAD/CAM Onsite Technology

Nowadays, CAD/CAM technological advancements allow a porcelain or dental ceramic prosthesis to be made within a dental office during a single appointment, eliminating the need for a lab to make the items. Although many dental offices do not yet have this technology, Dream Dental currently offers it. Here is some of the same-day technology that the office utilizes:

3Shape TRIOS 3 Scanner

This scanner allows the office to take three-dimensional photographs of your oral cavity. Instead of an old-fashioned mold, which is often made of gag-inducing putty that uncomfortably fills your mouth, the scanner uses digital imagery to make an electronic map that can be used by a state-of-the-art milling machine to create same-day crowns.

5-Axis Motion 2 Milling Machine by Amman Girbach

This particular milling machine, which is German-engineered and capable of both wet and dry processing, is able to produce porcelain crowns, bridges and other dental prosthetics onsite during a single appointment.

The milling machine at Dream Dental, unlike a CEREC machine that is often used by other offices, is not a type of grinder. It is a highly detailed piece of equipment that produces the customized prosthesis based on the precise measurements and contours detailed through the 3D imagery. Consequently, the resulting prosthetic appliance, which may be over five units long, is individualized for your mouth.

In conjunction with precise contouring, Dream Dental ensures a natural look through a custom shading process that provides the proper coloring for the appliance. If a large number of teeth, such as all of the teeth that you display when you smile or speak, are being replaced, the brightest shade of white may be selected to further transform the look of your mouth. However, if a single-tooth restoration is being performed, the Dream Dental staff matches the color of the replacement tooth to that of your remaining natural teeth, so the restoration blends seamlessly with the rest of your mouth.

After the milling machine sculpts the device from a block of quality dental ceramic material, it is glazed in glazing ovens to ensure the durability and attractiveness of the final product.

To learn more about the same-day procedures and equipment that are available to restore the look and functionality of your mouth, contact the Dream Dental office.