When Elizabeth Shwartz cracked her tooth, a feeling of dread came over her. It wasn’t just the thought of cracking one of her molars that caused her anxiety. What had her worried was all the time she expected to spend in the dentist’s chair. “I previously cracked a tooth, and the temporary fell out while I was in public,” she said. “Then the new crown didn’t fit, so I had to return for another dental visit. “It was a nightmare,” she said.
This time, her experience was just the opposite, thanks to new technology being used by her dentist, Dr George Georgiev from Sunny Isles Dental. He is one of a growing number of dentists equipped with a device that creates a three-dimensional model of patients’ teeth. The machine then makes crowns, caps and fillings while the patient waits. “You no longer need to have to get a temporary crown that falls out after three days,” said Dr George “We can create your permanent crown in 10 minutes.” Combined with his master technician, Edgar they are true experts , created more than 4000 of this restorations.
When Elizabeth came in to repair her tooth, she didn’t have to sink her gums into the gooey, mint -flavored mold paste that has been a staple of dentistry for decades. Instead a 3D digital impression was taken with high-tech scanning pen. The computer overlaid a model of a “perfect tooth” to show what it should look like and displayed a proposed crown to repair the damage. Because most people don’t have perfect teeth, the computer also projected where the new crown might grind with upper teeth. “We can widen, shorten or lengthen the proposed crown, depending on the needs and anatomy of the patient,” Dr George said. Edgar made changes to the image and sent a completed model of the crown to a computer- controlled carving machine. It cut the crown out of a small block of porcelain in 7 to 10 minutes.
Elizabeth said she only had to be numbed once and even watched the carving machine make her crown while she waited. “The next day there was no numbness, and I was back to normal ,” she said. “You can’t even tell there’s a crown, it matches my tooth so well.”
“This is a quantum leap in dentistry,” Dr George said. “You can get a root canal and have the permanent crown put in all in the same day. In Sunny Isles Dental we do not satisfy with anything but the best. Providing what’s best for our patients drove our decision of implementing this technology. Most importantly we are metal free, mercury free dental practice. Silver fillings, also known as dental amalgam, actually contain more mercury than silver, sparking concerns over possible emissions of mercury vapor.
We chose to not expose patients, staff, family and ourselves to a potential, and completely avoidable, safety hazard. Appearance was important too; a tooth-colored material was far superior aesthetically to a shiny metal filling in the mouth, and our patients naturally preferred that whenever possible. Amalgam filling do not bond to our teeth, so bacteria can always craw under and create a cavity. We are still about to remove a silver filling covering a healthy tooth.
Today, we still choose the most advanced dental materials available, to make sure our patients receive the full benefit of recent breakthrough technology. Using robotic equipment enables us to mill an all- porcelain dental restoration with tremendous precision and safety.
If you’d like to replace your dental amalgam filling with a more aesthetically pleasing ceramic filling we recommend CEREC robotic fillings over other procedures because they’re more durable and because the procedure can be done in one visit.
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