Rick's Journal

Some time in that last couple of months, one of my teeth developed a crack and I had to go and get a partial crown today.  This was pretty fascinating.  They have this scanner that scans the tooth in question and the two teeth on either side.  This is fed into a CAD program which does a 3D rendering of your teeth.  The dentist then uses a mouse and with the aid of tooth templates, fills in your tooth on the screen.  He shapes it to the specific needs of your tooth and this filling is sent off to an electronic milling machine.  This machine takes a 1" square piece of porcelain and in 4 1/2 minutes, with the aid of two tiny drills, turns it into an almost perfect fit for your tooth.  

It was the coolest thing I've seen in a long time.  No more temporary crown and coming back.  In 1 1/2 hours I got out of the office with an intact crown.  Of course, it still cost me $400 out of pocket, but at least it was a cool experience.  First time I can say that about a trip to the dentist.