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6 | CERECDOCTORS.COM | QUARTER 2 | 2014
the community aspect of cerec
dentistry — locally, regionally, and nation-
ally — is changing the way we interact
with colleagues to the benefit of the entire
profession. CEREC is the one thing in
dentistry that is returning the profession
to the collegiality of bygone years.
Amid the constant din of competi-
tion and fragmentation, we have a tech-
nology that is bringing dentists together
rather than dividing them. We root for
other CEREC doctors and their prac-
tices, even the one across the street —
and there is nothing else comparable to
that in dentistry today.
WHO ARE YOUR BEST FRIENDS
IN DENTISTRY?
As CEREC doctors, I’d venture to
guess this question hits a lot of you on a
pretty deep level, and stirs an emotional
response. I know it does to me. But it
didn’t always. When I started my career,
my professional engagement was tanta-
mount to moat building. I had purchased
a little practice, started to grow it and
began to bury my head in self-shoveled
sand. At the time, I had held-over friends
who happened to be dentists, but once
the surface was scratched, scarcely any
“friends in dentistry.” To make matters
worse, fate didme no favors initially as, to
a large extent, being isolated profession-
ally didn’t hurt my business. I carved out
a living under the mistaken pretense that
I had it all figured out.
I had done what many of us have done,
and many still do. Put candidly, I engaged
a fragmented, individualized and increas-
ingly contentious profes-
sion in a very cursory way
which—when coupledwith
reasonable financial success
CEREC: Saving the Profession,
One Doctor at a Time
C O M M E N TA RY | | | B Y C R A I G P. VA C E K , D . D . S .
on a practice-wide level. Similarly, it
fostered and necessitated a commitment
to ongoing learning that is a non-nego-
tiable requirement for CEREC success.
The aforementioned may be the nuts
and bolts of my CEREC experience, but
themost profound effect for me, person-
ally, has come not as a result of my asso-
ciation with the technology itself as it
pertains to the practice of dentistry, but
— shuttled me toward an unfortunate and
severely limited dental existence.
Thus, when I bought a CEREC 3-D
with Redcam in 2006, I wanted a crown-
making machine that was going to save
me money. I also needed proof that the
technology “worked.” As such, my due
diligencewas at once designed to answer
questions of financial and clinical rele-
vancy, but I was unknowingly missing
Members of the Lincoln, Neb.,
Regional CEREC Study Club
enjoy the Scientific
Symposium in
Scottsdale, Ariz.
the boat entirely on the true implica-
tions of my CEREC decision. And, in a
stroke of blind, dumb luck, my profes-
sional trajectory, aspirations, fulfillment
and success were transformed forever
by providing the best six-figure signa-
ture I’ve ever scratched.
CEREC stoked a passionwhere before
I had only a job.
Buying and committing to CEREC
was more than embracing a piece of
technology; it went far beyond that to
represent a commitment to innovation
insteadmy association with the commu-
nity that came along with it.
The CEREC community is the non-
tangible asset that many prospective
buyers fail to include in their analysis
when it comes time to make a practice-
and life-changing decision. This over-
sight is through no fault of their own.
On the contrary, I view CEREC as the
only thing in dentistry today with the
profound potential to bring dentists back
together where they have previously
drifted apart. Having never experienced