Advanced Technology
CEREC - Same-day Crowns
Not too long ago, the process of creating crowns, inlays, and onlays used to take a long time—up to two or three appointments—but today we are proud to offer our patients the benefits of same-day crowns with our CEREC machine.
CEREC stands for Chairside Economical Restorations of Esthetic Ceramic. Rather than taking a dental impression of your teeth and sending it off to a dental lab, and fitting you with a temporary restoration in the meantime, our CEREC machine uses advanced CAD/CAM technology to take a 3-D image of your tooth when you need some kind of restorative work done.
This 3-D image only takes a few minutes to complete, and from there, Dr. Fellner can begin digitally designing your new restoration. Shortly after that, a small ceramic block that matches the color of your teeth is placed in a separate milling machine. The data from the CEREC machine is sent to the milling machine, and after about 20 minutes, your high-quality, customized restoration is chiseled out of the ceramic block. Dr. Fellner then checks that the new restoration is a good fit for you and bonds it to your tooth—all in one day! Cool, right? Many patients have reported that the crowns and restorations created with a CEREC machine are more comfortable and feel more natural than those that have been created in a dental lab using only a molded impression of the patient’s teeth.
Suddenly, the waiting game just became much shorter, and it’s a perfect option for our patients who are always on the go!
Digital X-Rays
If you been to the dentist recently, the hygienist has probably taken a digital x-ray of your mouth. But do you know why we do this? Not only do these digital x-rays allow us to detect any problems easily and quickly, but digital x-rays actually reduce the amount of radiation by up to 90% in comparison to the traditional dental x-rays.
The use of this technology helps reveal:
- Bone loss
- Developmental abnormalities
- Poor tooth and root positions
- Decays this is occurring between the teeth
- Cysts or abscesses
- Issues in the tooth’s interior or below the gum line
- Cancerous and non-cancerous tumors
Caries Detector
Caries is another term used to describe the presence of tooth decay. Our doctors at Galion Dental Partners use a simple tool that is called a caries detector. This is a disclosing solution that is spread over the teeth. After the solution sits for about 10 minutes, Dr. Fellner will rinse it out. If there are scarlet red (or sometimes dark blue or green) stains left on the teeth, that is an indication of decay.
Intraoral Cameras
At Galion Dental Partners, we include the use of intraoral cameras to help us see the condition of your oral health and to also give you a clear, precise image of what we see. The defined, enlarged images that we generate with this camera aid us in providing you with an accurate diagnosis because the intraoral camera helps us spot details we wouldn’t be able to locate without it.