Precise, Predictable, Smile Perfecting Digital Impressions

When you need to repair your damaged smile or improve the appearance of flawed teeth, you will likely need to have at least one impression taken of your bite. These impressions are used by a dental lab or in-office dental milling unit to create crowns, bridges, porcelain veneers, and other restorative solutions. Dentists may also use impressions to design and craft advanced tooth replacement options like dentures as well as protective mouthguards for athletes or those who grind and clench their teeth at night. It’s clear that impressions are an essential aspect of dental treatment planning. Unfortunately, old fashioned impressions had to be physically captured in putty, and they often needed to be recaptured numerous times to get a precise reflection of the smile. Luckily, many dental offices are transitioning to digital bite impressions. These impressions streamline the entire planning and treatment process for most dental services. In many cases, digital impressions are tied into an in-office same-day dental restoration system, like CEREC, which allows your dentist to complete an entire restorative or cosmetic treatment plan in a single trip to the office. In this post, we’ll review some of the many benefits associated with digital impression systems.

The Trouble with Traditional Impressions

Traditional bite impressions are captured in a putty like material. In order to create an accurate representation of the bite, the patient will need to close their teeth in a very particular position and hold still in that placement for several minutes. In most cases, the impressions need to be recaptured. Then, these impressions had to be physically shipped to the dental lab which added to treatment time and cost. Once the lab received the impressions, they typically scanned them to create a digital reproduction that could be used to craft the restoration, prosthetic, or oral appliance. Again, creating an added expense and increasing opportunity for human error.

Streamlining Your Care with Digital Impressions

Digital impressions remove all of these concerns. They exactly represent your smile, capturing thousands of images that layer together to create a precise impression. With the click of a button, these impressions are sent to a dental lab or in-office milling system like CEREC where the restoration can be immediately crafted. This significantly reduces total treatment time and chance for human error throughout the process.

Meet the Wedgewood Complete Dentistry Team

At Wedgewood Complete Dentistry, we are dedicated to incorporating innovative dental technologies that allow us to offer patients a wide array of services in complete, stress free comfort. That includes using digital impressions and the CEREC same day dental crown system. If you want to learn more about any of our dentistry services or state-of-the-art dental office, call to schedule your appointment in our Powell dental practice today. We look forward to seeing you soon.