Do you still use gold for restorations?  If so, it is tough to beat using a CEREC.  I know, I know….I have a hammer so everything has to be a ceramic nail. Not so much. I love to use my labs and I love to be able to utilize the full complement of materials by taking advantage of sending certain cases to the lab. I don’t do a lot of gold, but occasionally a patient will ask for it or I may want to use it on a second molar with minimal clearance. Here is why I love using CEREC for gold restorations. I will prep the tooth, image it and design it just as if I was doing the case chairside. I dial in the contacts, both interproximal and occlusal and also the contours and then I mill my temp. I tend to use a block like lava ultimate or even a composite block. They mill the best margins and tend to be able to last the few days that I have it temporarily cemented on. There are also options like the Merz Artegral temp blocks or the Vita or Ivoclar temp material blocks too. I get to try in the temp and make sure that the marginal fit and contacts are perfect. Once that is verified, I will actually email or Dropbox that case to my lab. By doing this, all the lab needs to do is to mill out the block out of Cad-wax and invest and cast it.  Since it is exactly the same file as the temp I made, it will fit exactly like my temp. My lab does not even make a model for this usually. 

The major advantages of doing gold restorations this way are:

1. Can duplicate exactly what you designed for the temp so the fit will be identical. This makes for a very fast seat appointment
2. The temp you made is a milled temp so the margins are ideal. The tissue response will be as good as you have ever seen when you go and remove it
3. The turnaround time can be lightning fast. Think about it. The lab gets you digital file and can mill out that cad wax immediately. No need to pour up a model or spend time waxing a crown form. Many labs can turn around a gold crown in just a few days. I’ve even had them shipped out the same day from a lab when they received it early enough in the morning.

If you have not tried this method, give it a whirl. It makes for one of the fastest turn arounds and easiest seat appointments you have ever experienced.

Yea, so I used to be able to mill the cad waxx myself. would send that to the lab and get a fabulous Au crown. How come i can't do that anymore?

Stephen
If this is an important part of your restoration workflow and you don't want to omit the way Rich describes I would look into getting the InLab software. Cad Waxx is a milling option

Great Blog Rich. I will defn. try this.