Considering the fact that I practice dentistry within a dental laboratory, it may seem strange when I tell you that I now have a CEREC 3^® unit sitting next to me in the operatory. The purchase was a result of numerous CEREC owners contacting the lab, wanting to know if they could send their CEREC scans to us for fabrication. I couldn’t help but wonder why someone who had spent more than $100,000 on a piece of equipment, designed to replace the lab, would be calling the lab to ask if we could make these restorations. I decided to follow-up with a few of these CEREC owners and find out what prompted their call.

I quickly realized that many of the dentists I talked to weren’t using the units as much as they had once envisioned. It turns out they didn’t like being the technician as much as they liked being the dentist. For them, sending these scans to Glidewell was a way to maximize their investment without having to change the way they practice to accommodate this technology. Other dentists were using their units on a regular basis for posterior inlays and crowns. But when it came to bicuspid crowns or anterior crowns, they were not entirely pleased with the esthetic results they produced. While these dentists didn’t mind the designing or the milling, they did not like the staining and customization required for anterior units to blend in with the surrounding dentition.

The last dentist I spoke with had taken my advice to begin prescribing IPS e.max^® restorations, the new material from Ivoclar Vivadent (which I love). There are IPS e.max blocks available for the CEREC 3, but once these units are milled they need to go into a special oven (that retails at $3,000) for 20 minutes. And while IPS e.max is gorgeous and strong, it is much easier to have the lab fabricate it for you!

CEREC owners who send cases to Glidewell save $5 on our standard fees because we don’t have to fabricate their models. They save an additional $4 because they don’t pay for case shipment to the lab. If you have any questions about emailing CEREC scans to Glidewell, contact our All-Ceramic manager Keevin Shigenaka at 800-716-6563.