CEREC is an Acronym

What is CEREC? CEREC is an acronym…

* Chairside: CEREC technology is in the dental operatory and used while you are in the chair
* Economical: The CEREC procedure is economical for both dentist and for you the patient
* Restorations: The CEREC procedure restores your tooth to its natural beauty, function, and strength using advanced materials
* of Esthetic: CEREC restorations are metal-free and tooth-colored
* Ceramic: CEREC uses High-strength ceramics that are close in composition to your natural tooth structure.

CEREC is an advanced dental restorative system that allows Dr. Luth and Dr. Heideman, in Las Vegas, to restore decayed teeth, place crowns, remove defective amalgam fillings, or place cosmetic veneers in just one appointment. This allows you to have the highest quality, most lifelike dental restorations in just one visit to the dentist…in, out, and on with your busy life.

The CEREC system was developed by a dentist, Dr. Werner H. Moermann, and an electrical engineer, Dr. Markus Brandistini in 1985 at the University of Zurich in Switzerland. Today, CEREC 3 with CEREC 3D software is still the world’s only chair side dental CAD/CAM restorative system. At the heart of the system is the innovative technology. Learn more about what Las Vegas based cosmetic dentists Dr. Luth and Dr. Heideman can do for your smile with the amazing CEREC system.

The CEREC Difference

One of the greatest things about CEREC is that it can be used for dental procedures other than just crowns. CEREC is capable of producing any single tooth restoration including chipped or discolored front teeth which can easily be repaired with beautiful CEREC porcelain anterior crowns or veneers. As you well know, your smile can make a lasting first impression, and with CEREC we can restore and enhance that impression in just one visit.

CEREC has a history of over 23 years, and this cutting edge equipment has helped dentists world wide place millions of restorations. Perhaps the biggest advantage is the use of metal free materials that are the closest to your natural tooth enamel, and from this perspective, CEREC gives you the highest quality restorative care. Ask us today about CEREC in Las Vegas and how it can help you get your best smile!

The Cerec Difference

What’s the difference between Cerec and older methods of repairing damaged or decayed teeth? This is a great question, and is one we love to answer. A CEREC tooth restoration isn’t just convenient, it is also healthy. Your CEREC restoration only requires one visit to our office and utilizes state of the art technology to assist us in repairing your smile. Until recently, dentists had few options when it came to repairing damaged teeth, and most involved gold, amalgam, or other metals which don’t respond to temerature changes well. With CEREC, we can use strong, tooth colored ceramic materials that restore your teeth to their natural strength, beauty, and function.

These ceramic materials closely match the make-up of your tooth’s natural structure. This means when you eat hot food and then drink something cold, the restoration and tooth expand and contract at almost equal rates (unlike metal which can expand and contract disproportonate to to the tooth causing damage and wear). With a CEREC restoration, your tooth does not crack, and you can go on enjoying your favorite cold and hot food and drinks without a second thought.

In a CEREC restoration, the materials are chemically bonded to your tooth, so we can save as much healthy tooth tissue as possible while providing you with a dental restoration that strengthens your tooth.

Be sure to check out our CEREC offerings if you’d like to learn more.

Why Cerec?

Every day, more and more patients are choosing CEREC as their preferred dental restoration technique. According to the Sirona website, the CEREC technique has been the preferred CAD/CAM technology of dentists since 1985, allowing doctors to perform all ceramic dental restorations in a single visit.

Over the years there have been hundreds of clinical studies and the CEREC technique is offered by thousands of dentists with millions of patients having benefited from its offerings. Again, from the website, Cerec’s “proven performance, unrivaled success, and unequaled capabilities have made CEREC the number one dental CAD/CAM choice for over 28 years.”

For patients, the biggest advantage is the time savings. Only one appointment is required, resulting in much preferred single appointment dental care. As dentists and patients know, most restorative procedures require more than one visit to the dentist. Typically, this requires an initial visit including anesthesia, tooth preparation and an impression as well as a temporary restoration. A follow up visit is required a few weeks later, with another shot of anesthesia, the temporary restoration pulled off, and the new permanent restoration put in place.

The reason we like CEREC, and the reason our patients are choosing this method too, is the procedure is done in a single appointment – from start to finish!

What is Cosmetic Dentistry?

Since the 30’s, Hollywood has been experimenting with dentistry as a way to change or enhance the appearance of an actor’s smile. Over the years, that experimenting (with hastily applied veneers that would only stay on for a day or so) has turned into a respected discipline within the field of dental medicine. The focus of cosmetic dentistry is, quite simply, to modify the way a smile looks – or in encyclopedic terms: “to change the appearance of an oral cavity and it’s surrounding structures.”

Patients are able to have a more pleasing, and subjectively accurate, smile thanks to major advances in cosmetic dentistry and its technologies. In the 1980’s after substantial research and testing, veneers were no longer for the stars who were “ready for their close ups” but were being made available to any willing to pay to have them custom made.

There are several types of treatments used to enhance a patient’s smile, namely Whitening, Enamel shaping, Bonding, Veneers, and Gum Lifts.

Whitening, or usually referred to as “tooth bleaching,” is by far the most common cosmetic dental procedure in practice today – not just by cosmetic dentists, but in dental “whitening boutiques” across the United States. On the fashionable Newbury Street of downtown Boston, one can find a very upscale tooth salon. Have lunch with girlfriends, get a whitening, buy shoes, head home. All in a day’s work!

Enamel shaping, is the practice of removing parts of contouring enamel in order to improve the appearance of the tooth, or teeth. Small chips, as well as jagged or rough edges, can be shaped by “moving” the enamel. This practice can also be called stripping, slenderizing, reshaping, recontouring, odontoplasty, or enameloplasty.

Bonding, just like the name suggests, is a procedure employed by cosmetic dentists to fix chipped or badly cracked teeth. In the bonding process, an synthetic enamel dental composite is applied to the tooth and then sculpted, hardened, and polished. In more ways than one, cosmetic dentistry is seen as an art, especially when matching other unaffected neighboring teeth, or during a full mouth restoration.

Veneers, like the Hollywood actors used to use, are very thin custom designed laminates that are applied and bonded directly to the tooth. Thankfully, unlike black and white Hollywood days – they stay on permanently. Because of their dramatic and real look, many patients and dentists alike are choosing veneers to produce some of the most stunning smiles available. Severe discoloration and staining, in addition to gap closure are also possible reasons a cosmetic dentist may choose veneers for their client.

Gum lifts is perhaps the most “graphic” procedure in terms of reconstructing a client’s smile, simply because it involves the sensitive tissues of the gums and the bone within. In this procedure, a cosmetic dentist will literally reshape the gum tissue and sometimes the underlying bone, in order to give the smile a more uniform look – one that can be particularly effective when a smile could use more symmetry.

For veneers, cosmetic dentists no longer rely on old unstable metals which can create dental problems after decades of wear and tear. Porcelain is an extreemely strong material made from heating clay, which in turn becomes a glass/mineral (mullite) solid. Porcelain is the material of choice for most cosmetic dentists, as the look can be very accurately shaped to resemble real teeth. Most veneers and other cosmetic dental work, if done by a skilled set of hands and assisted by equally skilled assistants, are not recognizable as “false teeth.” This provides by far the most “real” looking alternative for clients seeking a realistic and enhanced smile.

Welcome to the New Luth & Heideman Oral Health and Cosmetic Dentistry Blog

We hope you enjoy this site, as we will attempt to provide on-going updated information relating to our cosmetic dentistry practice in Las Vegas.

We will provide more in-depth articles about the choices you have with regard to restoration, on-going maintenance and overall oral healthcare.

We’re happy to serve the Las Vegas area with cutting edge dental technology, and award winning customer service.