Latest Technologies

You'll find some of the technologies in Dr. Paul Bozzo's office.

CEREC Dentistry

One of the latest dental tools to appear on the dentistry scene is CEREC®. The CEREC machine is a special computer that acts as a dental restoration tool, allowing your dentist to restore decayed teeth, place dental crowns remove defective amalgam dental fillings, or place porcelain dental veneers in just one appointment.

The CEREC Procedure
The beauty of a CEREC restoration is just that -- its beauty. Unlike unsightly silver dental fillings, CEREC fillings or restorations are made of tooth-colored ceramic (porcelain) so they look natural. A CEREC procedure requires less time, less drilling and fewer injections, too. It might sound too good to be true, but if you doubt that such good-looking restorations can be made in your dentist's office in just three easy steps, CEREC will put some optimism back into those doubts.

Here's how a typical CEREC procedure goes:

Exam and Preparation -- Your dentist examines your teeth, decides on the preparation method and starts prepping your teeth (removing the tooth decay).

Optical Impression -- An optical impression (picture) of the prepared tooth is taken.

Restoration Creation -- Your dentist uses the CEREC machine to design and create the dental filling, dental crown or dental veneer, right in the office!

CEREC Technology

The CEREC 3D system is comprised of a CEREC Acquisition Unit, CEREC 3D software and a CEREC Milling Unit. The Acquisition Unit houses a medical-grade computer and CEREC camera; this unit takes a picture of your prepared tooth and creates a 3D model of it, which your dentist uses to design the restoration on screen.

The Milling Unit creates the porcelain dental filling, dental crown or dental veneer. During treatment, your dentist chooses a block of ceramic that resembles your natural tooth color and then places that ceramic block into the milling unit. The milling unit creates the restoration based on the design you just made on the Acquisition Unit, eliminating the need to take messy impressions or send work out to a lab. In about 8-18 minutes, your dental filling or dental crown will be complete and your dentist will bond it into place.

Keep in mind that not every dentist uses CEREC dental technology -- yet. CEREC is catching on though -- over 4,000 dentists in the U.S. and Canada use CEREC and over seven million restorations have been placed worldwide.

Digital X-Rays

Our office provides both digital intra oral x-rays (in the mouth) and digital panoramic x-rays (outside the mouth) that are both necessary to give a very thorough evaluation of your dental health. A benefit of using the digital x-rays is that they are instant. No longer does the patient sit in the chair waiting for the films to be developed by harmful chemicals that would be necessary for the processing of the film. Another benefit to the patient is that the patient’s dose of radiation during a digital panoramic x-ray is equivalent to the amount of natural environmental radiation absorbed during a 30 minute flight at an altitude of 36,300 feet. Compared with conventional exposure on category “D” film, a digital intraoral x-ray requires only one tenth the amount of radiation (per ADA).