For Practicing Dentists, What Do You Think Of CEREC?

[NonTradHopeful]

For those who are practicing right now, what do you think of the CEREC technology?

1. If you do not own it, what has stopped you from purchasing it.

2. If you currently own it, what do you think about it? What are the pros/cons?

...just curious. Thanks!

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[Daurang]

I see no reason to spend $100,000 on a gadget plus $200 monthly maintenance fee to do nothing new. My $39-$129 lab fee per crown is much cheaper and less headache than anything the CEREC will produce. I admit it's pretty cool but at the same time provides no advantage as it'll only increase my overhead.

 

[omaralt]

I see no reason to spend $100,000 on a gadget plus $200 monthly maintenance fee to do nothing new. My $39-$129 lab fee per crown is much cheaper and less headache than anything the CEREC will produce. I admit it's pretty cool but at the same time provides no advantage as it'll only increase my overhead.

I completely disagree. I just bought into a practice that has a cerec; so luckily I don't need to invest in it, but I still would have.

1- you don't need to spend 100K. The previous owner bought it used for 35K

2- you will save a lot of money. My labe fee for PFM is around $100. The cerec block + all associated materials (etch, etc) does not exceed $30. Keep in mind for a conventional PFM you have to add in the costs of a PVS impression, temporary, cement, etc. Those can easily add up to an additional $30.

3- time is a big factor. Only need to see the patient once. Better for you and patinlents love it

the previous owner did hundred in under a year. He tried to show me how to use it and I got a membership to cerecsoctors.com and watched all the videos and it's still difficult to use, so I'm taking a CE course at the sirona facity next weekend (not cheap, 3K). Either way I think it's a great invesment. It's definitely not for all cases; I still won't do it for anterior cases, but is great in many situations.

Omar

 

[OceanDMD]

Expensive. Color is poor unless you want to stain and bake. Porcelain blocks are poor quality compared TO conventional. I like the saved time involved (no temporary), but its a pain in the ass constantly hacking on the occlusion(the software rarely gets it right). Bottom line, the esthetics suck. Worthless for anterior restorations, great for posterior inlays/onlays.

On a side note,although Im not high on cerec, I made myself a full coverage restoration for #18 8 years ago, its still functional even though it looks like shat. Many dentists love and swear by this thing. My suggestion is to take some CE from a cerec dentist.

 

[NonTradHopeful]

I completely disagree. I just bought into a practice that has a cerec; so luckily I don't need to invest in it, but I still would have.

1- you don't need to spend 100K. The previous owner bought it used for 35K

2- you will save a lot of money. My labe fee for PFM is around $100. The cerec block + all associated materials (etch, etc) does not exceed $30. Keep in mind for a conventional PFM you have to add in the costs of a PVS impression, temporary, cement, etc. Those can easily add up to an additional $30.

3- time is a big factor. Only need to see the patient once. Better for you and patinlents love it

the previous owner did hundred in under a year. He tried to show me how to use it and I got a membership to cerecsoctors.com and watched all the videos and it's still difficult to use, so I'm taking a CE course at the sirona facity next weekend (not cheap, 3K). Either way I think it's a great invesment. It's definitely not for all cases; I still won't do it for anterior cases, but is great in many situations.

Omar

Thanks for the response, Omar. I guess the reason I'm asking this question is that I read on a TON of dentaltown forums that doctors who acquired a practice with CEREC already installed started to see issues with it. The biggest issue they saw is that patients who had CEREC crowns done 3-4 years ago are now all coming back for retreatments (either because the fit was terrible and the crown suffered over time, or because the crown was failing in other aspects). They complain that the CEREC crowns are starting to show that they do not last as long as traditional crowns, and the patients who are coming in for retreatments are taking up more chair time (which translates to more overhead costs, etc.).

Omar, do you see this happening with the crowns that your practice's previous owner did? If it's too soon to tell, do you anticipate having this problem?

Expensive. Color is poor unless you want to stain and bake. Porcelain blocks are poor quality compared TO conventional. I like the saved time involved (no temporary), but its a pain in the ass constantly hacking on the occlusion(the software rarely gets it right). Bottom line, the esthetics suck. Worthless for anterior restorations, great for posterior inlays/onlays.

On a side note,although Im not high on cerec, I made myself a full coverage restoration for #18 8 years ago, its still functional even though it looks like shat. Many dentists love and swear by this thing. My suggestion is to take some CE from a cerec dentist.

Ocean, thanks for the input. From what I've read on forums, it seems like those who swear by CEREC said that the new emax blocks help with the issues you stated above, along with a better adhesive. What do you think about that?



Also, as an aside, I just want you to know that I'm only a pre-dent (nontraditional, planning to go back to school). I was just doing some casual internet browsing about dentistry and happened to stumble upon stuff about CEREC, and it caught my interest (yes, it is sad that I spent my Saturday night reading about dentistry, lol). My point is, please bear with me if my questions seem trivial, lol.

 

[NonTradHopeful]

Anybody wanna take a bite on the questions above?

 

[lotexigeus]

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http://cgi.ebay.com/Cerec-Mobile-De...ultDomain_0?hash=item2a04dc9776#ht_532wt_1211

 

[TJNova2011]

lotXz,

Funniest thing all day, props