June 17, 2010
Pretty interesting. Received a very detailed explanation of the Cerec Connect process – from both the laboratory and operatory perspectives. It seems pretty straightforward, and Sirona, through its “selectively open” approach has taken the necessary steps so a laboratory owner doesn’t feel locked into only using the MC XL milling unit. There are now ways to output to a 3D Systems printer, as well as outputting STL files that can then be loaded into other systems. Of course, there are dongle fees associated with these ancillary services, but nothing insurmountable.
I must say I was a little disappointed to discover that the Cerec models are fabricated using SLA technology. Comparing apples to apples, I personally prefer Cadent’s milled model technology. While I haven’t done any cases using a Cerec model, I have done several cases using the Lava COS models, which are also SLA formed. I don’t think my preference is rooted in anything other than appearance, however I must say that the Cerec yellow models look much nicer than the Lava COS blue models.
Lastly, I was educated to an interesting idea using a palatal index which has been trimmed in such a fashion as to allow the correlation of prepped arch with diagnostic wax-up. After your solid, pre-operative model has been waxed to mimic your desired final contours, make a putty index capturing the palate, in detail. After the putty sets, remove the index and trim the edge of the index closest to the lingual of the teeth so that it resembles the serrated edge of a bread knife. Return the index to the dentist to be luted in place during the capturing of the digital impression images.
Once the digital impression is complete, you can replace the index on to the wax-up model; powder everything, and scan. The jagged edges of the index can then be used to correlate the the impression image and the image of the wax-up. Once correlated, you can make the screen image of the wax-ups translucent creating a “ghosting” that can then be used to design your final restorations.
I may not be doing a good job of explaining this verbally. Will give it a shot once I get home, and take some photos. ”A picture is worth a thousand words”. Ya-da-ya-da-ya-da…
June 17, 2010
isn’t any indication as to how the rest of my trek to discover the secrets to actually making Cerec InLab work will go.
Had a 6 pm flight scheduled to depart Dulles and put me in Charlotte around 7:30. Unlike Steve Campbell of B&D, I’m one of those people who gets to the airport 2 hours before flight time, just like TSA instructs. Usually I end up sitting at the gate for 90 minutes, but yesterday I was pleasantly surprised to discover there was any earlier flight that had been delayed about 45 minutes, and had a few seats open. When the gate agent asked if anyone was interesting in leaving early, I jumped up and ran to check-in.
Big mistake.
No sooner (maybe 5-6 minutes) did US Air get everyone on the plane and the door closed, did the pilot inform the passengers that we would be in a weather delay, and that he would keep us updated every 15-30 minutes.
Minutes stretched into Hours.
At the 2 hour mark, US Air got cute. According to the new FAA regulations, they were supposed to have everyone deplane at this point. However, they told us that if we got off the plane, we would not be allowed to re-board. Didn’t seem like cricket to me, but…
A handful of people departed, but the rest stayed on when we were told that a later scheduled flight (my original flight) would not take off before ours.
Another 1 1/2 hours passed. At that point, they told us we could get off the plane, but we had to be back on in 10 minutes, in the event we were given clearance to take off. No one left, and (lo and behold) exactly 10 minutes later we were given clearance, but had to wait 20 more minutes before pushing back from the gate because they needed to add more fuel because we would be taking a new, longer route to Charlotte. Super.
Finally – 4 hours after boarding the flight – we took off.
I’m grasping here, but I’m hoping for some parallels between my flight and my experience to date with Cerec. Its been about 4 years since I purchased the system, and its basically been “sitting on the ground” for most of that time. I hope this course I’m attending provides some clearance, and I will actually be able to make the damn thing “fly”.
More tonight…
June 16, 2010
Took a couple more photos of our CrownZilla restorations – this time, a couple of three-unit bridges that are being shipped today.
Pretty nice results for a virtually unbreakable,monolithic restoration – not to mention, a great value $115/unit!
BTW – I’m headed to Charlotte, NC this afternoon for a two-day course on Cerec InLab and Cerec Connect. I have my fingers crossed that this is not a waste of time. Will update from the road, as time allows.
June 14, 2010
Last week I wrote about a new milling strategy using a .6mm bur for the refinement of the occlusal anatomy on our posterior full contour zirconia restorations which I so cleverly named “CrownZilla”. I promised pictures, but the flash on my camera wasn’t working properly (Since it attached to the flash boot on the camera, I assumed it was powered by the camera battery – didn’t realize the flash had a separate battery…Duh.)
Anyway, its now working, so I took a couple of shots of a CrownZilla that’s being shipped this morning -
That ain’t bad!
June 6, 2010
I think the C15 Anatomical Library for use in designing full contour restorations using the 3Shape software is very realistic, specifically the occlusal pits and fissures. However, I’ve always been a little disappointed in the final results from our Pro 5000 mill because the occlusal detail was milled using a 1 mm diameter bur.
At my request, Daniel from B&D worked out a new tool strategy which takes advantage of the machine’s ability to use a smaller 0.6 mm diamter bur. I spent some time this weekend milling some CrownZillas which I will sinter tonight. Just from looking at the milled jobs, I can tell the anatomy is a little more refined.
If I can get my camera to work tomorrow, I’ll post some pics.
Thanks, Daniel!
