The List: Top 5 reasons you shouldn't be afraid of chairside CAD/CAM
The dentist doesn’t have time. Dentists are busy people-and adding the time to get a fully esthetic anterior crown to their list of job responsibilities just isn’t realistic for many of them. “There will always be a need for a quality crown,” explains Tra Chambers of Express Dental Laboratory. “Chairside crowns done in 90-minute appointments will never have the same esthetics or quality as a crown created by a professional ceramist over a 40-hour timeframe.”
The dentist doesn’t have time.
Dentists are busy people-and adding the time to get a fully esthetic anterior crown to their list of job responsibilities just isn’t realistic for many of them. “There will always be a need for a quality crown,” explains Tra Chambers of Express Dental Laboratory. “Chairside crowns done in 90-minute appointments will never have the same esthetics or quality as a crown created by a professional ceramist over a 40-hour timeframe.”
Chairside esthetics aren’t lab esthetics
For some cases, chairside restorations might be just fine. But as Doug Frye of Functional Esthetics Dental Lab explains, sometimes they won’t cut it. “There are very few dentists who have the experience, capabilities or training to fabricate, create and finalize top-tier esthetics, which can only be obtained by layered ceramics,” Frye notes.
CAM isn’t for everyone
Many labs worry about the milling part of CAD/CAM, but remember that the CAD component to the equation can actually help a lab’s workflow. “Chairside milling is not for everyone, but digital impressions are,” Chambers says. “As doctors get more exposure to digital dentistry, they will want a laboratory to support them.”
It invites cooperation
“It creates new opportunities such as the opportunity to work WITH the doctor, not necessarily FOR the doctor in a like-minded way through technology such as Sirona Connect,” says Bill Atkission, owner of Bella Vita Dental Designs. “Furthermore, it provides the opportunity to grow your lab in directions never before available.”
It opens you up for bigger things
If a clinician uses a chairside CAD/CAM system to take care of simple restorations, that takes those off the lab’s plate and opens you up to be the specialized creative you are. When you’re not spending time creating posterior crowns that will never be seen, you’ll become the go-to for anterior solutions that the dentist just can’t do on his or her own.
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