Crafting The Perfect Same-Day Dental Crown: Art Meets Science With CEREC

Whether you’ve got a large cavity, a broken tooth, or an old dental filling, a CEREC crown from the team at Pristine Dentistry may be just what you need for a healthier, brighter smile.

The first step to taking advantage of same-day dental crowns is understanding the process. Below are 5 steps our team follows to give you your dream smile in just a single day!  

1. Numbing Your Mouth and Preparing Your Tooth

First, our dental team will examine, clean, and sanitize the treatment area. Then, we’ll apply a local numbing agent to your gums so that you don’t feel any discomfort during your appointment.

Next, Drs. Ashley or Ben will remove a very small layer of enamel from your tooth in order to better attach the dental crown. They will then sculpt your tooth structure into a strong, stable platform for your new crown.

2. Creating Your 3D Intraoral Scan  

With CEREC technology, there’s no need for traditional putty-based impressions. Instead, our advanced technology includes a handheld 3D intraoral scanner to take a digital “impression” of your teeth. This camera takes thousands of images to create a highly precise model of your mouth.

Once that’s done, a software program will stitch the images taken into a 3D model using special software. This 3D model becomes the base for your same-day crowns.  

3. Crafting Your New CEREC Restoration

Using the same computer program, Dr. Ashley or Dr. Ben will begin designing your crown with aesthetic precision, making sure that the crown fits into your smile properly, looks and feels natural, and doesn’t change how your teeth fit or function together.  

We always want to ensure that the shade of your new crown matches your natural smile, so while designing our dentists will check the shade of your teeth and pick out a small ceramic block that matches your natural smile. Porcelain dental crowns can’t be whitened after they’ve been placed, so it’s important to choose the right color. Some patients even choose to have their teeth whitened before getting a new dental crown. This lets them select a brighter crown that matches their newly-whitened smile.

4. Milling Your Porcelain Crown

Using a sophisticated CEREC CAD/CAM (Computer-Assisted Design/Manufacturing) machine, the ceramic block selected becomes your new dental crown after a series of cuts and sanding. The process takes around 15 minutes for each crown, meaning your beautiful, dream smile is just minutes away!  

5. Fitting, Adjusting, And Placing Your New Tooth

There may be some final adjusting that needs to be done after the crown has finished in the CEREC machine to ensure it fits perfectly. After they’ve confirmed that your new tooth will fit perfectly into your mouth, your dental team will sanitize and prepare the area one final time.  

Then, they will attach your new porcelain crown to your natural tooth enamel using powerful, long-lasting dental cement. This cement only takes about 5-10 minutes to cure, though it won’t reach maximum strength until about 24 hours after your visit. After your crown has fully bonded to your tooth, your dentist will polish it one final time. Then, you can head home and enjoy your newly restored smile!

Restore Your Tooth in Just One Visit with Pristine Dentistry

If you need a dentist in Vista to repair cavities and restore damaged teeth, Pristine Dentistry is here for you. With our investments in CEREC technology and Dr. Ashley and Dr. Ben’s advanced training in same-day dentistry, we can restore your smile in just one visit. Give us a call or contact us online to schedule a consultation right away. We’re looking forward to your first visit!

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