GSDM Patients Get Same-Day Restorations from Pre-doc Dentists

On Wednesday, April 30, 2014, two patients in the pre-doctoral Patient Treatment Center walked out with same-day ceramic restorations. Pre-doctoral students Grant Murray DMD 2014 and Kali Stewart DMD 2015 worked with Drs. Alexander Bendayan and John Guarente to deliver CEREC restorations to their patients in a single visit. As Boston University Henry M. Goldman School of Dental Medicine (GSDM) transitions to the first all-digital dental school in the US, Murray and Stewart will be one step ahead.

“Having the opportunity to complete a CEREC restoration allowed me to see the bright future digital dentistry has for me and my classmates,” Murray says. “I am a hands-on learner and this experience will help me in the future to implement CAD/CAM restorations in the offices that I will be working at.”

Stewart agrees. “I certainly feel like learning more about the CEREC system gives me an advantage,” she says, “especially for cases in which more conventional methods are complicated by factors such as tooth anatomy or time constraints. My patient had fractured an existing restoration so I was left with a large space to fill with an inlay. The CEREC worked beautifully and even Dr. Fraser, with whom I had originally prepped the tooth, was amazed that we were able to restore it with such a simple process.”

Before the patients’ appointments, Dr. Bendayan created a treatment plan and determined that both Murray and Stewart’s patients were good candidates for CEREC restorations. On the day of, Drs. Bendayan and Guarente instructed Murray and Stewart on proper anesthesia; tooth preparation; intraoral digital impressions utilizing CEREC’s BlueCam; milling of the restoration; and fitting, adjustments, polishing, and final cementation. The students themselves took the digital impressions.

For Murray’s patient, completing the restoration in one visit was not most important—he simply wanted quality restorative treatment—but it was a welcome bonus. Murray says, “I discussed with the patient that this CEREC restoration would be the same quality as a traditional lab-fabricated Emax restoration and the patient was happy to get the work completed in a single visit.”

Stewart says, “My patient loved watching the process on the computer and was happy to leave for her vacation later that day with a new esthetic restoration.”

Dr. Bendayan points out that there is much to learn before jumping into using CEREC. “This technology has made the process of making ceramic restorations very simple, but it does not replace the dental training required from the operator,” he says. “It is important that the dentist is trained on the software component of the technology, has proper knowledge of dental materials and tooth preparations, and understands the delivery of ceramic restorations.”

He adds, “Here at GSDM we are already covering these steps and more, and we are moving rapidly toward training faculty and staff on CEREC so that we may accomplish our goal of becoming the first dental school with full digital dentistry integration for all our students.”

CEREC, or Chairside Economical Restoration of Esthetic Ceramics, is the CAD/CAM system that allows dentists to make ceramic restorations in one appointment.

The School will host CEREC training sessions for faculty later this month. Check Outlook or contact Dr. John Guarente for dates.