Same Day Dental Crowns With CEREC

If you would rather avoid two visits to your dental practice to have a crown fitted, we have just the solution for you!

Crowns are used for a number of purposes at The Dental Centre Bedford. Perhaps most commonly they are used to restore a tooth that has been badly decayed or damaged and where a filling would not offer enough strength. They are also used to complete a root canal procedure and to add the final finish to the placing of dental implants.

Anyone who has had a crown will know that the usual process involves two visits to the dentist. The first to remove any decay and then shape the tooth so that it is ready for the crown to be fitted. This is then followed by the taking of impressions which are sent to an external laboratory where the crown will be made. One or two weeks later, you will receive a phone call telling you that your crown has been returned and asking you to make an appointment to have it fitted. This delay can be inconvenient for anyone who is busy and the time in between will require a temporary crown to be fitted to protect the prepared tooth.

But what if this could all happen in a single visit? The answer is that it can, thanks to the use of Cerec technology that is available at our practice here in Bedford.

What is Cerec?

It is a chairside technology that allows a crown to be produced in around an hour or so and which can then be fitted. The process starts in the usual way by preparing the tooth by removing any decay and then shaping it so that the crown can be fitted.

The next step is a little different and instead of taking impressions to be sent to a dental lab, the impressions are taken digitally using high quality scans. These are then fed into a computerised milling machine. This then takes a single block of porcelain and mills and shapes it into a crown to the specification of the scans that were taken. The time varies slightly but is usually around one hour where you can relax in our waiting room or perhaps take a walk locally. You can see a mill in action, speeded up on our Cerec webpage, It really is quite fascinating to see it in action. In this case it is a bridge being milled but the principle is exactly the same.

The milling process produces a high quality crown which can then be given to the dentist to be fitted. This is done in the standard way, using a special adhesive which secures it into place. The speed and efficiency of this process eliminates the need for temporary crowns to be worn.

Keeping your crown healthy

Your new crown is, of course, made from porcelain, and unlike a natural tooth, it will not decay even if you neglect to clean it. However, it is attached to what is left of your natural tooth and it is therefore essential that you clean the whole tooth to prevent problems from occurring. If you don’t do this, decay is likely and that may either mean that the tooth breaks a little or you need to have it filled. Both of these may well mean that the crown no longer fits securely and you may need to have a new one made. This is easily preventable of course with good quality cleaning and flossing around the tooth. Gum health is important as the crown may be lost along with the supporting natural tooth if the underlying bone becomes damaged through periodontitis, a more advanced form of gum disease.

Detached crowns

People are sometimes uncertain about having a crown as they have heard that they can become detached. While this is true, it actually occurs very rarely and even if it does, it is usually towards the end of the life of the adhesive. Providing that your tooth is still intact as before, the crown can simply be cleaned of the old adhesive, along with the tooth, and reattached with new adhesive.

This brings us to an issue which would rather not feel the need to address but this does happen. If your crown, or veneer for that matter, does become detached, please, whatever you do, don’t try to stick it back on yourself. You are almost certain to leave small gaps if you do and food and bacteria will then become trapped and decay follows, leading to the loss of the crown. In addition to that, many adhesives are very acidic and will damage the natural tooth, making the crown unstable and probably causing significant discomfort as well. Please do NOT try to attempt this yourself, and in the rare event of a crown becoming detached, simply give us a call and we will assess and reattach it for you as soon as we can.

If you suspect that you might need a crown but have perhaps been putting off addressing this due to time constraints, why not give us a call and see how we can help? For crowns, veneers and other restorations in a single visit, please call The Dental Centre Bedford on 01234 819868. Please do give the video a look. We think you will find it interesting.