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December 2019       “Members Helping Members”                                      Volume 37, Issue 10











         Crowns and Computers





         Auhor: Maryellen Amato, M.D., Member, ICON Users       All that has changed with CEREC-3d CAD/
         Group, MO                                              CAM. CEREC stands for “Chairside Economical
         July 2019 issue, The ICON Newsletter                   Restoration of Esthetic Ceramic Crowns.” CAD/
         Meamato76 (at) gmail.com                               CAM stands for ‘computer assisted design/
                                                                computer assisted manufacturing.”
         www.iconusersgroup.org

         Like most professions, dentistry has been deep-        CAD/CAM has been used in industry for many
         ly impacted by computer technology. Many den-          years, but dental CAD/CAM applications were
         tists, for example, have been using digital x-         not available until the 1980s, and CEREC tech-
         rays. Several months ago in an article entitled        nology has only become popular in the last dec-
         Musings on Medicine, I discussed the ad-               ade.
         vantages of using digital radiography, including
         quicker imaging times and decreased radiation.
                                                                My dentist, Mr. Jeff, DD, was one of the first
                                                                dentists in Springfield to embrace this technolo-

         Another major facet of dentistry that has been         gy approximately 10 years ago. He has made
         affected by computers has to do with the way           several crowns for me with this technique, and it
         dental crowns are made. A crown is a small             was so much easier than the old method – and
         prosthetic cap that fits over an entire tooth to       much faster, too. Instead of taking two visits and
         restore its strength and appearance. A crown           two weeks to get the permanent crown, it only
         may be necessary for a variety of cosmetic and/        required about two hours total in one visit to
         or functional reasons. A tooth might require a         have the new crown made and placed in my
         crown if it is broken, racked, heavily decayed,        mouth.
         worn, damaged in some way, or compromised
         by a root canal.


         I had a number of crowns made back in the “old
         days” before the advent of computers. A tray of
         gooey putty was placed over my teeth for a few
         minutes and then the impression was sent off to
         a distant lab where the permanent crown was
         made. In the meantime, for the next two weeks I
         had to endure a fragile temporary crown.
                                                                                                     (Continued on page 4)

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