In the past, having a restorative or cosmetic dentistry procedure involving porcelain crowns, veneers, or fillings required a minimum of two visits to the dentist office and waiting for weeks to have your custom-made dental restorations created and returned to the office.

Now, some cosmetic dentists like Dr. Kodish in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, are using CEREC technology to provide you with porcelain dental restorations in just one office visit. You can now benefit from having custom-made porcelain veneers, fillings, or crowns in just one visit.

CEREC technology creates your porcelain restorations through the use of an optical impression and computer aided design.

In order for the cosmetic dentist to make an optical impression, they must paint your tooth with a non-toxic titanium dioxide powder. This powder allows the infrared waves sent at your tooth to be interpreted more precisely. The result is a high-resolution optical impression of you tooth. This optical impression can be viewed on a monitor next to the chair.

Once the optical impression has been taken, the cosmetic dentist can begin making adjustments and designing your restoration. All of this is performed chair side, allowing you to watch the dentist design your custom porcelain restoration.

Once the cosmetic dentist has finished designing your porcelain restoration, the computer aided design machine will mill the restoration out of a block of porcelain. A mill that uses high-speed diamond burs manufactures the restoration. Your custom-made porcelain restoration is created while you wait and takes just 10 minutes.

When the restoration is finished, the cosmetic dentist will permanently bond it to your tooth. The porcelain restoration you receive will last as long as any other porcelain restoration, and will work exactly the same; the only difference is that it takes a fraction of the time to receive it.