CEREC Dental Crown Restoration

Comments: This is the process of creating a new crown for my #2 tooth. The tooth was previously crowned with an alloy of gold/platinum/palladium more than 10 years ago but had always been a problem, often feeling like there was a "pin prick" in the tooth. After some inflammation above, I was sent to an endodontist who did the root canal over and also discovered a somewhat rare fourth canal the original dentist missed. This had been the source of the problem and what were evidently small repeated infections. This root had to be filled using an episiotomy, which is the process of surgically cutting back the gum and drilling directly into the side of the tooth instead of from the crown. The video begins with a slideshow of the tooth being restored, in 3D on the CEREC system. Prior to this, the dentist removed the temporary filling, installed a new metal post, added and shaped new material to build up the center, then he sprays a powder on the area, and uses a small camera/scanner to take several pictures of the restoration area. The CEREC system then processes these into the 3D model you see. Once the crown is designed, the information is sent to the milling machine that carves the crown out of the ceramic block. This is then confirmed to fit, and put into a curing oven for about 25 minutes during which it changes color and changes to a much harder material. Then adhesives are applied to the tooth and to the crown. They are mated together and cured/fixed with a UV light. The dentist will then check for fit, using a type of carbon paper that will rub off where the teeth hit, and use his tools to grind down some of the material if necessary. This is a fantastic technology compared to the old method of sending out to a lab, waiting, and possibly having to repeat the process all over, taking several visits to the office. This process, not including the root canal, cost me less than $1400, but is well worth it when done by a professional who knows what they are doing. Update: I had to re-upload this because the original contained music to take the boredom out of the still image sequences. But when I monetized it, YouTube put it into perpetual "under review." Despite my twice providing the license from iPhoto which grants the right to use all the music in projects, YouTube failed to respond for at least a month and counting.