FOR MAY 28 2023
DR. RHODA ENTERO
MEDICAL INSIDER
The Importance of the CAD/CAM Dental Lab
in a Dental Center (PART 5)
What Are The Processes Involved When
Undergoing CAD/CAM Dentistry?
Custom 3-dimensional images of the tooth that’s
based off of your dental scan or digital scans of your
dental impressions will be created when using
CAD/CAM techniques.
These scans are many times more accurate than the
traditional mold technique, thus ensuring a virtual
design for your restorative device that’s a perfect
tailor fit to your mouth every time. Milling equipment
or a 3D printer is then fed the digital information to
get to work on the appliances.
According to studies and to be more specific, here’s
a list of steps involved in a procedure using
CAD/CAM as provided by the Dental Economics
publication.
Anesthesia: You will first be anesthetized with
local anesthesia to prepare your damaged tooth
for prosthodontic correction, like for example
putting a crown atop a holey tooth with cavities
too large for dental fillings to fix. This is to avoid
getting your raw tooth nerve or the surrounding
sensitive gums to go throbbing in pain.
Tooth Preparation: Your compromised tooth will
be drilled, chiseled, and roughened up in order
to make it more receptive to its new
prosthodontics. This drilling is why anesthesia is
necessary when putting in a new restorative
device on your compromised tooth or teeth,
especially if it’s a dental bridge.
Intraoral Scanning: Your prepped tooth or set of
teeth will then get an intraoral scan in order to
have digital data to feed your computer
responsible for the bulk of the CAD/CAM
process. This is superior to using molds that are
sent to dental labs so as to mill your new false
teeth for about 1-2 weeks.
Restoration Design: A CAD technician will then
design the restorative device responsible for
restoring your teeth to its former glory in
accordance to the data given to him and the
recommendations of the dentist. It’s all in 3D
that will then be fed to a device for
manufacturing purposes.
Milling or Printing: The CAM portion of
CAD/CAM involves printing out the new tooth
using a 3D printer and tough textile material
you’d normally see used in factories and
industrial-grade work. It can also involve using a
block of ceramic to mill or cut a tooth out of it.
Sintering and Polishing: When milling a ceramic
block into a 3D crown or bridge, it also needs
sintering and polishing to make it as tough,
shiny, smooth, and brand new as human teeth.
3D-printed restorative devices might also require
further sinter and polish but not as much as the
ceramic block.
Cementation: This new prosthodontic device is
then placed on your prepped tooth or teeth using
what’s known as dental cement. It should be
tough enough to last years or decades even
when regularly used, but it could give way much
sooner when abused (like when you chew gum,
ice, hard candy, or cracker nuts regularly). The
best cement will make your prosthetic teeth feel
so solid and grounded it’s like they’ve always
belonged in your mouth.