A solid ceramic inlay has always been a high quality, lasting alternative to dental fillings for larger defects in the posterior region. However, an inlay used to be a solution that required quite a bit of patience, too. Preparing the tooth, taking the imprint, closing the cavity with a temporary filling, waiting for the inlay to be manufactured by the technicians in our busy dental lab, removing the temporal filling and finally, inserting the inlay has been a matter of two appointments and, all in all, about a week or more of (your) time.
CEREC has changed this picture: Now we can fabricate ceramic inlays in mere minutes, using a digital imprint of the prepared tooth, and insert them during the same visit, with the local anaesthetic from the tooth preparation still effective. This means, we can provide you with an inlay in about as much time as it takes to place a composite filling: One more reason to choose this highky recommended option. So, how do we do it? To prepare your tooth for an inlay, we create a cavity with slightly tapering walls and rounded edges that will take up an inlay without blocking or leaving any “air”. A special margin preparation prevents the inlay from being pushed further into the cavity by the pressure of your bite (which might otherwise force the tooth walls apart, possibly breaking the tooth).
If we are satisfied with our preparation, we create a highly detailed optical imprint of the tooth and its “opponent” in the other jaw (important for the design of the inlay’s occlusal surface) with the intraoral camera. On the monitor of our computer, we now see a 3D representation of your tooth with a matching inlay that has been created by the CEREC system’s CAD software.
You can get further Informations about the costs of an Instant dental inlay in our download section(german only) or directly in our Practice in 1010 Vienna.
After carefully optimizing the occlusal surface of the inlay design, we send it off to the computer controlled milling machine – and are able to present it to you after a couple of minutes. We cement the inlay in place using the adhesive technique. While we prepare the surfaces of tooth and inlay and apply the composite adhesive, a Kofferdam membrane in your mouth keeps things around the cavity dry. After light curing the adhesive, the inlay is securely in place. Now, we check the occlusion and perform minor corrections of the inlay surface if necessary.
A final polish creates a beautiful, smooth surface – and you’re good to go. An adhesively integrated inlay gives a tooth some extra stability and is thus a solution that will last better and longer than a filling. With CEREC, this first class solution is now available to you instantaneously, and at a very affordable price.