CEREC Care

PATIENT ALL SMILES AFTER SIX CEREC's ON HER FRONT TEETH!

JUST AFTER THE CEREC^® IS PLACED...

Your CEREC^® restoration is as strong as it's going to be by the time you leave the office. You do not need to eat soft foods for the rest of the day. The only precautions we give our patients is to take great care to avoid biting their cheek or tongue while they are still numb. The average CEREC^® restoration should take 1 hour to complete. You will generally still be numb for another 30 minutes.

You can expect some minor soreness and irritation around the gum line for 2-3 days. For the first 48 hours after your appointment, if the soreness is a problem, you can take whatever pain reliever you would take for a headache and that should suffice.

 

If your tooth was cracked or the doctor told you the decay was very deep:

Then the tooth may be sensitive to cold for as much as a week, slowly returning to normal over that time period. It may also take a week before it is comfortable to chew on. You must remember that this kind of work is just like any other extensive microscopic surgery that you might have elsewhere in your body. If you had microscopic surgery on your eye, you would not expect to go bird watching for weeks. The minute nerves and blood vessels inside your tooth will take time to recover just like any other part of your body needs to go through the healing process.

 

Please call us immediately if: 

Your bite does not feel normal. You should not feel that the CEREC^® tooth "hits first" or "hits too hard" when you chew. If your tooth hurts after eating that is a sign that you need your bite adjusted. We try to get our patients so numb that the procedure is utterly painless. The draw back to profound numbness is that it is difficult for us to adjust the bite precisely at the time that the CEREC^® is placed. Please just pick up the phone if you have concerns with this issue. We will have you come by for a slight adjustment that takes less than 10 minutes. **If your tooth seems fine for a few days after the appointment but then develops biting pressure pain, pain after eating or cold sensitivity, this is a classic sign that your bite is slightly off. Just call for a quick adjustment.

 

If your bite is off even the thickness of half of the width of a human hair, your tooth may suffer for it. The CEREC^® will not adjust itself or get better on it's own if the porcelain is even a fraction too thick.

 

Also, please call us immediately if :

You develop a severe tooth ache following placement of a CEREC^®. It is important to remember that any time you have a tooth with deep decay and/or a crack, millions of bacteria have had access to the inside of your tooth (and often the nerve chamber) for a very long time. We have no way of knowing how far the bacteria have gone microscopically. The nerve of your tooth may already have been in critical condition before we attempted a repair. Sometimes, all it takes is a dental procedure to change the status of a tooth from "quietly smoldering" to "angry toothache". In some cases, the severity of your tooth ache may indicate that a root canal is necessary. This is no one's fault. It is simply one of the possibilities whenever your dentist works on a tooth that has significant decay. You can be sure that in our office, we use all the latest science in materials and methods in order to prevent a toothache. But in the final analysis, the tooth is still no more predictable than any other part of the body in its response to the trauma of corrective surgery.

 

All that said, CEREC^® has a surprisingly good track record of "saving" badly damaged teeth without toothaches and root canals. We do 4 to 6 CEREC^® restorations every day in our office and not more than 3% of those teeth need further attention. Keep in mind that if we do not attempt a repair of the tooth, then you are certain to face root canal or extraction, eventually......So the work must be done and CEREC^® gives you your best chance at a positive outcome.

 

ROUTINE CARE...

 

You must also remember that CEREC^® is a ceramic material with the same properties as human enamel, which is similar to glass. If you chew non-food items, very hard candies, un-popped popcorn, or ice, the CEREC^® will break just as easily as your natural tooth. Chewing anything like the items just mentioned will be as likely to break your other natural teeth as it will the CEREC^®.

 

You brush and floss a CEREC^® restoration exactly like you would a natural tooth. You cannot pull out a properly bonded CEREC^®. Floss Often and Assertively!