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54 | CERECDOCTORS.COM | QUARTER 2 | 2014
what cerec block should we use
for anterior restorations?
This seems like a simple enough ques-
tion, does it not? Unfortunately, this
question is not easily answered. We
need to look much closer at what we are
trying to do, and that means asking a few
more questions.
Some of the questions to ask when
planning a case are:
• What is the preoperative situation?
• Are there current restorations?
• If there are current restorations, how
muchtoothstructurehasbeenremoved?
• If there are not current restorations,
howmuch tooth structure needs to be
removed to achieve our goal?
• What are the space requirements of the
restorative material you may choose?
• What is the shade of the underlying
tooth structure?
• If there is discoloration, where is it
located?
• Is the goal functional, esthetic or both?
This article is the first in a series that
will deal with restoring anterior teeth.
We will start with the planning stage and
when you would use a certain class of
materials over another. The goal of this
article is to help you knowwhere to start.
There arenodefinitive answers andevery
case is different; but once the fundamen-
tals are understood, your chances of
success will be greatly increased.
When first looking at a case, the main
challengeiscommunication.
How do you communicate
to the patient their preop-
erative situation and what
Choosing the
Correct Block
Communication Using Photography
C L I N I C A L | | | B Y M I K E S K R A M S TA D , D . D . S .
know the easier a procedure is to do, the
more often we will do it. These images
can also be used by the dentist when
staining and glazing the restoration. Too
often, colors and shades are just added
arbitrarily. We need the photographs to
“characterize with a purpose” (Fig. 3).
Therefore, the first step in planning a
case is photography — and not only the
pictures themselves, but ameans toconve-
niently and quickly use them for both
education and creating the restoration.
Photography is also the major guiding
factor when treatment planning a case.
A lot of us subscribe to the concept of
Facially Generated Treatment Plan-
ning. However, in this article, we are
the goals of the treatment will be? The
perhaps obvious answer is photography.
How do we make photography conve-
nient for the dentist, the staff and the
patient? One great product to achieve
this is called Eye-Fi, a wireless SD card
that essentially makes your SLR camera
wireless (Fig. 1). To bring this concept
even further, there is a card called the
Eye-Fi Mobi, which automatically
transfers your photos from your camera
to a tablet. This allows you to take the
picture and, within seconds, the image
appears wirelessly on an iPad (or other
tablet) to show the patient (Fig. 2).
Not only is the technology amazing, but
it also creates convenience. And we all
Fig. 1: Wireless SD Card
Fig. 2: Transferring photo from
Camera to Tablet
Fig. 3: Using photo to help
characterize the restoration
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