42
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cerecdoctors.com
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quarter 4
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2012
CEREC, inLab and Galileos
The New Language
of the Modern
Dental Practice
the otherday, iwas having a conver-
sation with one of my patients about TV
shows from the ’80s. Shows like
Mork and
Mindy
,
The Great American Hero
,
Wonder
Woman
,
The A-Team
,
The Six Million
Dollar Man
,
etc. That led to a conversation
about movies — specifically,
Star Wars
.
The original movie was released in 1977
and was called by many a movie ahead
of its time. In my opinion, George Lucas
created a masterpiece. One of the most
amazing features of the original trilogy
was the special effects. Everything was
handmade, including the background
scenes and costumes, the spaceships and
the aliens. Lucas put much effort, time
and stress toward creating something that
was — and still is —magical.
When advanced computers hit the
film industry, Lucas was able to make
the second trilogy, and most of the alien
characters were created with software.
Scenery, star ships — even entire cities
andworlds —were createdwith this tech-
nology and in less time than before.
Computers, as we all know, have had
the same impact on the way we practice
dentistry. And, just as it took five indi-
viduals to control the original Jabba the
Hut, in dentistry we used to need a lot of
people and steps to create a product. Take
a crown, for example: you needed the
doctor to take the impression, a delivery
company, someone to sterilize the impres-
sion, somebody to pour it,
the technician who cuts the
die and places the pins, then
the wax-up, the cast and the
C A S E S T U D Y
| | |
b y C a r l o s M e l e n d e z , D . M . D .
ceramist, and finally the delivery back
to the doctor. Now, with computers and
amazing software like CEREC SW 4.0.3,
inLab 4.0.1 and Connect 4.1, the process
is reduced to just two steps. The doctor
takes the optical impression, and viola,
the case is directly emailed to the lab via
CEREC Connect.Doctorsareabletogetthe
product faster and, in turn, provide better
service to patients. I find this remarkable,
like the science fiction of my beloved
Star
Wars
:
Sirona is the way of “The Force.”
The modern dental practice makes
things easy for the patient, the staff, the
lab and the dentist. Plus, it reduces the
level of stress and improves results. These
practices have well-designed customer
service, because the time to deliver the
products is faster and more predictable.
The modern Sirona practices have one
thing in common: SUCCESS.
Technology and customer service are
very important in a today’s dental practices,
but the relationship you have with your lab
technician is sometimes paramount to the
other two when it comes to the cases and
the fast delivery of great dentistry. Imtiaz
Manjioncesaidthatyoucanbeassuccessful
as you want, but it all depends on who you
have in your sandbox — and my lab tech-
nician is definitely in mine. Your relation-
ship with your lab is a major factor when it
comes to delivering excellent results.
The following case study is an example
of the integratration of the Sirona family
of prodicts, and the great communication
between lab and dentist, made possible
with CEREC, inLab and Galileos.
Case Study
The patient was a 45-year-old female
professional who works with clients daily.
She had had a full dental rehabilitation,
which includedacombinationof crownand
bridge, veneers and root canal treatments a
fewyears ago. The patient’s chief complaint
was that her bridge in the upper-left side
had come off (Fig. 1). There was a four-
unit PFZ bridge with #11 as an abutment,
treated with an RCT and a post, #14 single-
conical root was the posterior abutment.
The patient developed recurrent decay in
#11,
around the post walls (non-restorable),
and #14 developed recurrent decay (Fig. 2).
Tooth #14was sensitive to cold and hot.
The patient came to the office with the
idea of a re-cementation, but when the
conditionwasexplained,shewantedtohave
the best treatment possible. At the begin-
ning, my treatment proposal was to extract
#11
with an immediate implant placement,
bone graft and another implant in #13 for a
three-unit bridge and a single crown for #14
after the root canal treatment. I referredher
to the endodontist, but the prognosis of #14
was poor. Now, my treatment plan changed:
Fig. 1: Patient’s previous bridge. #11 and #14
are abutments, #12 and #13 are pontics.
Fig. 2: #11 with previous root canal and
space for a post with recurrent decay. #14
with recurrent decay at the margin lines.
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