The biggest challenge I face in practice is the anterior indirect restoration. Plain and simple they are very difficult. It is only complicated when you are a ‘PPO Dentist’ tied by network fees.
This leaves us with a couple of choices…
1. Deliver aesthetic treatment at a loss.
2. Deliver less than excellent and justify it by the fee.
It’s not fair to be limited by these fees. What I have been able to do is to utilize CEREC to provide the aesthetics I desire while maintaining practice profitability. Here’s an example of a single central we completed in a single visit – about 90 minutes.
The case was done using the Biogeneric Reference mode. This design technique ‘mirrors’ the contralateral tooth for design. In this case we are redoing a crown on #9 and used #8 as the ‘mirror’.
Pre-Operative View
Selecting Biogeneric Reference in the Administration phase
Tooth prepared
Final design using #8 as a ‘mirror’
Restoration ideally placed within polychromatic block. This block has chroma near the gingivae and becomes more translucent at the incisal.
Restoration after stain and glaze. The stain and glaze is done directly in front of patient using her real teeth as a guide. A BIG ADVANTAGE!
Immediate post-op after delivery. Note how the coloration hasn’t blended in quite yet.
Here is restoration and patient a few months later. After tissue healing and rehydration of the teeth look how well the restoration blends in.
Just because you participate with insurance doesn’t mean you can’t provide ‘high level’ dentistry. I challenge you to up your game and raise the level of dentistry in your community.
