Remember the old way of getting a crown? You’d come in for a numbing shot, we’d take an impression with that goopy material that made you gag, and then you’d wear a temporary crown for two weeks while a lab made your permanent one. That meant two appointments, two numbing shots, and two weeks of worrying about that temporary crown popping off every time you flossed.
That’s not how it works anymore in our Claremont office. We’re using same-day crown technology that lets us design, create, and place your permanent crown in a single visit. No temporaries. No two-week wait. No second round of shots.
The Old Process vs. The New Process
The traditional method relied on physical impressions and outside dental labs. We’d take a mold of your tooth, send it to a lab, and wait for them to ship back a crown that might or might not fit perfectly. If it didn’t, and sometimes they didn’t, we’d have to adjust it or send it back. That meant even more waiting.
Same-day crowns skip all of that. Instead of mailing impressions to a lab, we use digital scanning and in-office milling technology. We take a highly detailed 3D image of your tooth, design your crown right there on a computer screen, and then mill it from a solid block of ceramic while you wait. The whole process takes about an hour or two, and you leave with your permanent crown already in place.
How the Technology Works
First, we use a small intraoral scanner to capture a digital impression of your tooth and the teeth around it. There’s no goopy material involved, just a wand that we move around your mouth. It takes hundreds of images per second and stitches them together into a precise 3D model.
Then we use specialized software to design your crown. We can see exactly how it will fit with your bite and your surrounding teeth. If you’re getting the crown on a back tooth, we’ll make sure it’s strong enough for chewing. If it’s a front tooth, we’ll shape it to match your natural tooth color and translucency.
Once the design is perfect, we send that digital file to our in-office milling machine. This is the really impressive part. The machine carves your crown from a single block of high-strength ceramic, usually zirconia or lithium disilicate. It uses diamond-tipped burs to shape the crown down to the micron level.
While the machine does its work, you can relax. Read a book. Scroll through your phone. Grab a cup of coffee. It takes about fifteen minutes or so.
How Does it Feel?
The experience is genuinely different from the old way. You still get numbed for the preparation, because we do need to shape your tooth to fit the crown. But that’s it for the needles. There’s no second appointment and no second shot.
We check the fit right there in the office. If something needs adjustment, we adjust it before you leave. That means no surprises at home, no numbness wearing off to find something feels wrong, and no calling us a week later to ask if you should be able to feel that edge with your tongue.
Why This Is Better for You
Same-day crowns mean fewer appointments, which is easier on your schedule. But the real benefit is the quality of the fit. Because we design and mill the crown while you’re here, we can check everything in real time. The margins fit better. The bite aligns naturally. You don’t have to “get used to” a temporary crown that never quite feels right.
And because we’re using modern materials like zirconia, your new crown is incredibly durable. These materials are metal-free, which fits with our whole-body approach to dentistry, and they look completely natural, no dark gray line at the gum line like older porcelain-fused-to-metal crowns.
We’ve Been Using This Technology for Years
We invested in same-day crown technology because we believe your time matters and your comfort matters. Coming to the dentist shouldn’t mean multiple visits for one procedure. And it shouldn’t mean waiting around for two weeks hoping your temporary crown doesn’t crack on a piece of toast.
If you’ve been told you need a crown, or if you have an old crown that’s feeling loose or uncomfortable, give us a call. We’ll show you how simple the process can be.