International Journal of Computerized Dentistry, 03/2003

In a dental practice, 2328 ceramic inlays were placed in 794 patients. The restorations were manufactured chairside using Cerec technology and adhesively inserted at the same appointment. The clinical performance of the restorations was evaluated with the Kaplan-Meier analysis. The probability of survival was 95.5% after 9 years; 35 Cerec restorations were judged as failures. The prognosis for success was not significantly influenced by restoration size, tooth vitality, treatment of caries profunda (CP), type of tooth treated, or whether the restoration was located in the maxilla or mandible. The most common type of failure was the extraction of a tooth. In a clinical follow-up light-microscopic examination of 44 randomly selected restorations, an average composite joint width of 236.3 µm was found. 45.1 % of the restorations exhibited a perfect margin, and 47.4 % of the investigated joint sections showed underfilled margins. Keywords: Cerec, ceramic, Kaplan- Meier analysis, composite joint

The digital camera is one of the most important electronic articles on the wish list in the private sector, and professional users are also making increasing use of the possibilities that the digital image provides. In dental medicine, nothing speaks for the analog image anymore, and thus many dentists are searching for an expedient solution. Anyone who is faced with deciding on a digital camera will often be confused by the immense variety of models and concepts, which are also subject to rapid change. Fortunately for dental medicine, however, the current camera generation - both viewfinder and SLR systems - offers quality features which will be able to satisfy even high demands for many years. Keywords: digital photography, digital cameras, digital images, editing images, presentation

The Cerec method offers experienced users the possibility of accomplishing veneers chairside which are capable of meeting the highest functional and esthetic requirements. "Esthetic shaping" directly on the patient requires a good eye for color and form, and this requires training. The present report outlines the clinical procedure and presents three clinical cases step by step, specifically discussing the external staining technique with Pro- CAD blocks. Keywords: veneers, Cerec, ceramic, anterior esthetics

The present article describes the CAD construction procedure of copings, reduced crowns, anatomical crowns, hybrid bridges, and other construction software features contained in the Digident ® dental CAD/CAM system (Girrbach Dental, Pforzheim, Germany). The individual design of a crown or a bridge framework will, of course, influence the stability and the longevity of the final dental restoration. Especially an anatomically reduced crown framework possesses - in comparison to a simple coping design - several advantages, while for some materials, a full crown design is esthetically not suitable. An anatomically reduced crown design results in a mechanical support of the occlusal cusps, as the high strength framework is mechanically more favorable than the veneering ceramics or composites. Moreover, the reduced construction of the anatomical shape allows the creation of ceramic layers of approximately homogeneous thickness. This has the effect that the residual stresses in the veneering ceramic after the thermal treatment, ie, several firing and cooling cycles, are minimized. A prerequisite for the computer-aided anatomical construction of crowns is the inclusion of adjacent teeth and the articulation of the opposing jaw. In these terms, the opposing jaw or a bite impression have to be scanned, digitized, and positioned virtually in bite relation. While taking patient-specific articulator parameters into account, a software-integrated "virtual articulator" allows simulation of dynamic occlusion and therefore a computer-aided reduction of interfering contact points. Keywords: CAD/CAM, software, construction, full crown, reduced crown, coping, framework design, bridge design, virtual articulator, occlusion