The technical term for my new favourite toy is Cerec Primescan. It’s a high speed, super-fast, super-accurate digital scanner that replaces impression material. We use it just as a scanner for things like whitening trays, retainers, aligners and mouth guards (they get made offsite). However, the really cool part is it allows me to make ceramic crowns and fillings on the spot.
After the tooth is prepared, it is scanned with the camera and then the software designs a perfect (and I mean perfect) fitting crown or ceramic filling. I then mill the crown or filling out of a solid block of very hard ceramic, polish it up, and glue it in, all in one visit. No temporaries, no second needles, no mucking around, and best of all, it costs (you) no more than the old way. I, on the other hand, paid a fortune for it, but it saves me time, so we both win.