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Copyright © 2005
by the NADL
Journal of Dental
Technology.
All rights reserved.
November/December 2005
The Importance of Prep Work
By Eric Martin, DDS, and Nick Sabbia, DDS
As
told to JDT
The all-ceramic restorations are relatively new and there
are a lot of dentists who are not used to preparing restorations for the
all-ceramic CAD/CAMS and especially the CEREC machine. The materials are coming
out so quickly now that there’s no way for established dentists, new dentists
or dental schools to keep up. Laboratories will have to be the ones to educate
their referring dentists so that they can get proper preparations coming into
the laboratory.
The preparation has to be flat with a CEREC preparation as opposed to anatomical. The reason for that is with the most commonly used milling bur used to mill a CEREC restoration is 1.6mm diameter. If you have an anatomical occlusal reduction you’ll have points in the occlusal aspect that are higher than others. That 1.6mm diameter bur will go all the way up to the very tip of that and create an area where the restoration could possibly be too thin. That is the situation with either the CEREC inLab or the CEREC 3D.
When you’re used to doing a prep a certain way and getting good results, you’re always hesitant to change. But you have to be a realist and know that change is inevitable. If you don’t have the right type of preparation, it doesn’t matter how good you are with the machine because you’re not going to have a good end result. It starts with the preparation.
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Eric Martin, DDS, and Nick Sabbia, DDS, operate a general dentistry practice in Savoy, Ill. Martin, Sabbia and their three hygienists see about 48 patients a day. The number one thing they look for in a laboratory is quality, which they define as following what is written on the prescription. They primarily use Ragle Dental Laboratory, CDL, in Champaign, Ill., because of the great rapport that exists between office and laboratory. |
That’'s where all the laboratories that get these CAD/CAM machines are going to have problems – they’re going to have to educate the dentist on the type of preparation required for that machine to make a good restoration. The manufacturer has to help the laboratory by providing a preparation sheet or some sort of guidelines as to what preparation is required. Laboratories could then provide this information to their clients. Or the manufacturers could provide someone to come in and talk about the machine to dentists.
No matter how laboratories educate their dentists, owners must know that laboratory CAD/CAM is the wave of the future. Not every dental office is going to invest in a CEREC machine. Most dental offices have computers and if a dentist can e-mail the digital impression to a laboratory that mills it and gets it back to the dentist the next day – or even that day – that is the future of dentistry.JDTUnboundRead more great articles in the November/December issue of the Journal of Dental Technology. Order your copy here.