Anyone know about CEREC fillings?

Question

I have had a serious erosion problem leading to multiple holes and have had a large number of fillings in the last 5+ yrs (am 31 yrs old).

My dentist has started using CEREC fillings which take an age and cost a fortune. Are they reliable? Do they last? Are they used in most dentists now? He talks about them like he's the only person who can do them but i don't know if he's just trying to retain me.

Answer 1

Well obviously he is not the only person to do it, its not like he invented it, but there are very few who do it. I do not understand how erosion led to holes that can be filled with CEREC. Erosion leads to wedge like notches on the neck of teeth or smooth flat ditches on the tongue side of the teeth. And why on God's green earth do u want CEREC?? silver amalgam is a good option ( i dont know if u have mercury toxicity concerns but they are baseless) its a metallic filling resistant to the acids that cause erosion.it has a proven track record of a hundred years, CEREC is new, it is brittle, it is expensive, its prone to leakage. Making a CEREC is cool though, it requires an expensive bit of CAD/ CAM machine the cost of which ur dentist has to recover.

Answer 2

As a second year dental student I have not yet been introduced to this product but I was able to get some information off of the CEREC website regarding the product. Apparently, it is a new method of restoration which allows for the use of a more resistant material.

After reading your description on your conditions, "large number of fillings within the last 5 years" and the fact that you have serious erosion, I am more concerned with your eating habits than with the restoration material being used. Patients that demonstrate a large number of fillings in such a short amount of time tend to be people that do not have proper oral hygeine, eat foods that have excessively high amounts of sugar as well as high amounts of acid. Erosion of teeth is more commonly found in those patients that eat very acidic foods, or suffer from some kind of acid reflux abnormality. Other possibility for erosion is bulimia, as induced regurgitation can expose the oral environment to very high levels of stomach acids.

If you fall in any of the above mentioned categories, I would consider re-evaluating your habits in effort to not only improve your oral health, but also save you money. This CEREC material seems to be fairly new to the market and hence, expensive. Odds are that your dentist is not the only one that uses this material, but, since it is a new product (at least to me) it is easy to convince patients that you are the only one available that uses such methods.

Always keep in mind that all the dental products and materials used by dental practioners are tested many times over and are constantly in research. Once they are allowed on the market, the amount of testing and research done, is more than enough to deem it accurate and safe. So, even though your dentist carries it and leads you to believe he is the only one using it, it has been used and tested by FAR more many people than you can imagine.

For more information on the product you can access this site: http://www.cereconline.com/ecomaXL/index...

Hope this helps!

Answer 3

I am not certain that a CERAC filling is the best solution for an erosion problem. Many  fillings do not hold up in this area due to the flexure of the teeth. I would not want amalgam, either. If the areas are deep and causing sensitivity, a bonded composite( tooth colored) filling would be the choice of most dentists.