Do CEREC Same-Day Crowns Last a Long Time?
When it comes to dental crowns, patients have long loved the convenience of the CEREC CAD/CAM system, but some patients do ask if these crowns are as good as the those made by traditional dental labs. They particularly want to know how long these crowns last, because no one wants to have them redone any sooner than necessary. With that in mind, I happened to see a patient recently who has in her mouth the longest-lasting CEREC crown that I've ever done: my Mom! Porcelain Dental Crown Materials are the Same in Lab & Office CEREC E.max bridge The simple fact is that both labs and CEREC offices use identical materials when making most porcelain crowns, onlays, and veneers. For many years, Empress and VITA ceramics were highly used, but today the 2 most common materials are E.max and Zirconia, although there are many others available. Even when dentists use traditional impression materials today, almost all labs still have scanners to convert the models into digital format to design and mill the crowns, bridges, or onlays. That's why dentists with CAD/CAM systems and labs use identical materials, because we're using extremely similar methods to make them. Because manufacturers can provide the same materials in the same sizes and shapes to both labs and dentists, it has helped keep the cost of these new methods steady. That's why we don't charge a different fee based on doing it with CEREC or sending it to the lab. It's true that most dental offices using CEREC can only make onlays, crowns, and bridges from E.max; the oven necessary to bake and crystallize Zirconia crowns only became broadly and affordably available within the last couple years, but they [...]
