Let's face it, going to the dentist is not a lot of fun and even more important, a visit to a dental office takes valuable time from work or being with your family. Understanding that your time is valuable, Dr. DeMello is pleased to be able to offer you the comfort and convenience of one visit dental care. 

Usually when a tooth needs a full or partial crown two or more appointments are necessary. At the first visit you receive a local anesthetic, the tooth is prepared and an impression is taken. Then a temporary filling is placed. At the second appointment, usually two or three weeks later, another local anesthetic is administered and the restoration placed.

Technology today is changing our everyday lives.  Many people, however, aren't aware that technology also is impacting dentistry in new and exciting ways. Cutting edge innovations in dental instruments are requiring less time in the dental chair, less discomfort and creating satisfying results. One breakthrough instrument that Dr. DeMello has brought into his office is called CEREC that allows him to quickly retore damaged and unsightly teeth with natural colored ceramic materials.

This porcelain is the closest dental material to natural tooth structure.  Until CEREC porcelain was developed only yellow dental gold had the closest properties to natural tooth structure and longest prognosis of all dental restorative materials.

With the CEREC procedure, all porcelain crowns and restorations can be placed in one visit that often lasts under one hour.

• Tooth-colored veneers, crowns and all other single tooth restorations
• No messy impressions
• No "silver-colored" fillings
• Minimal invasion to the healthy part of a tooth
• All in one visit

First, Dr. DeMello will administer a local anesthetic (and use nitrous oxide sedation, if you like) to make sure that you will have no discomfort and then will prepare the tooth to receive the restoration just like he would do for any other tooth that needed treatment.

But here's the exciting part.  Instead of taking a regular impression with a tray full of goop that has to harden, Dr. DeMello will coat the tooth with a powder (made of the same material the the "M" on M & Ms is printed with) and then take an optical picture of your tooth with a specially designed camera, a procedure that only takes a minute or two.

Dr. DeMello will then design the restoration using 3-D software in a special computer program.  This design is sent to a CEREC milling machine where a block of porcelain, colored to match your teeth, will be contoured to fit your tooth and bite. This only takes about 15 minutes.  When the restoration is completed, he will try it in, make adjustments to the bite, polish and cement it in place.

All in one visit with no temporaries, no impressions and no second anesthetic injections!

The ceramic material used to restore your tooth to health and appearance is strong, esthetic and biocompatible.  These materials match the physical properties of natural tooth structure closer than any other dental material. They look more natural because, unlike laboratory porcelain, CEREC porcelain exhibits fluorescence and opalescence like natural tooth. This means that a CEREC restoration looks like natural tooth in any light. In fact, the materials used in the CEREC process are so much like natural tooth that there will be no sensitivy when you eat or drink hot and cold foods.  And once the restoration is chemically bonded to the tooth, the restoration will actually strengthen the tooth.

So far we've been talking only about fillings in the back teeth, but CEREC can produce crowns and veneers for your front teeth as well. Chipped, broken and discolored front teeth can also be beautifully restored in only one visit with the CEREC technique.