Restorative Dentistry

One Visit Restoration with CEREC Technology

CEREC® stands for Chairside Economical Restoration of Esthetic Ceramics. CEREC makes it possible for us to provide tooth-colored crowns, inlays, onlays, & veneers in just ONE visit in our Beaufort dental practice.

How does CEREC work?

After Dr. Wallace has examined your tooth and worked with you to determine the best course of treatment, your CEREC visit will be scheduled for a convenient time for you. At your appointment, Dr. Wallace will prepare your tooth for restoration, saving as much healthy tooth structure as she can. Then, CEREC enables her to restore the tooth using a strong, biocompatible porcelain ceramic material that matches the natural color of your other healthy teeth. Using a special 3D digital camera, we take an optical image of the tooth to be repaired. We then digitally design the restoration, creating a virtual model on the computer screen using advanced CAD software.
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The computer-aided manufacturing that follows the process described above is extremely precise for a great fit when we bond the newly milled restoration to the tooth. A block of the ceramic restorative material is inserted into our onsite CEREC milling unit to be machined to exact design specifications sent from the computer. After only 30 minutes or so, your restoration is ready to be placed. It is polished and bonded to your tooth to look and feel like a healthy, beautiful tooth – all in the same visit!

More Benefits of CEREC

CEREC has been clinically proven in millions of successful restoration procedures, and patients all over the world have benefited from the convenience and cost-effectiveness of CEREC. Restoring damaged teeth before it’s too late can preserve more natural tooth and protect your smile for the future, not to mention the fact that restored teeth are more visually appealing than damaged teeth (and indistinguishable from your natural teeth).

Tooth-Colored Fillings

Advances in modern dental materials and techniques increasingly offer new ways to create more pleasing, natural looking smiles. Researchers are continuing their often decades-long work developing esthetically attractive materials, such as ceramic and plastic compounds that mimic the appearance of natural teeth.

Today, more patients ask their dentists about white fillings because they want their teeth to look natural when they laugh, talk and smile.

White fillings, also called composite fillings, are made from tooth-colored materials that restore the natural appearance of a decayed or previously filled tooth. Because they blend well with tooth enamel and don’t look like fillings, your dentist may recommend them if the teeth to be restored are near the front of your mouth.

A composite filling usually requires only one visit, during which the tooth is prepared and restored. An advantage of composite fillings, as compared with other dental restorations, is that they require less of the healthy part of a tooth to be removed to hold the filling in place. This is due to composite materials’ ability to bond to teeth adhesively.

The procedure for a composite filling may take a little longer than those for other types of fillings, because after the decay is removed, the tooth must be kept totally isolated from saliva. The dentist carefully applies an adhesive followed by several thin layers of the tooth-colored composite. Once the filling is in place, it is chemically hardened, or cured, for less than a minute with a special light.

Dental Sealants

Highly effective in preventing decay on the biting surfaces of your chewing teeth, dental sealants are a simple procedure in which a tooth-colored acrylic “coating” is painted onto the surface of the tooth. This effectively “seals” the deep grooves, acting as a barrier and protecting enamel from plaque and acids.

Sealants protect the depressions and grooves of your teeth from food particles and plaque that brushing and flossing can’t reach.

Easy to apply, sealants take only a few minutes to seal each tooth. Sealants hold up well under the force of normal chewing and can last several years before a reapplication is needed.

Children and adults can benefit from sealants in the fight against tooth decay.

Oral Health is more than a pretty smile.

Every patient deserves to understand their oral condition and have the information on how to best achieve their oral health and aesthetic goals for a healthy smile.

Respectful, honest environment

No patient should feel shame about their oral health or feel pressured into treatment. Our job is to tell you what we see, give you options for treatment, and then let you decide what is best for you.

Relaxed, comfortable environment

Going to the dentist can be stressful, and we strive to minimize that as much as possible. Our office environment is relaxed and quiet. We have comfort amenities to help make your visit low-stress.

Everyone has different goals

Some people are short on time and need their treatment completed in as few visits as possible. Others need to spread their treatment out over a longer period of time – we get that, too. Whatever your needs, we will help you formulate an action plan that suits you.

Digital Dental Technology

Our Beaufort dentist is mercury-free and she is dedicated to performing the highest quality dentistry. Dr. Wallace only places tooth-colored bonded fillings. She uses only the best dental materials, dental laboratories, expert master ceramists, and utilizes the latest digital dental technology.

Care dictated by your health needs

We believe all treatment should be driven and guided for the benefit of you and your oral health, not by the guidelines of insurance companies which are often outdated and substandard of the high-quality dental care that exists for our patients today.