Blog from Mentor Ernie Johnson

As the Winter Olympiad of 2014 is about to get underway, this oft repeated mantra of broadcasters and advertisers sparked an epiphany when I was Mentoring Levels 2-4 in January. A student asked how I could look at the CEREC machine and "know" so quickly what was happening and help troubleshoot their issue. I answered, "I look for the gold." Let me explain.

In the current 4.x software environment, the engineers have created a theme where anything highlighted in gold is what is currently being acted upon --what phase you are in, what task you are performing, what tool is selected, which tooth is being affected, what material is selected, etc... If you see a gold halo or a gold color highlighting a step or area, then that is what is being changed at that moment. So, when stepping into a troubleshooting situation, I simply scan the CEREC screen presented to me and "Go for the gold!" In a glance, I can determine what phase, task, tooth, tool, and change is being attempted. You can do this too.

When something isn't "acting" the way you would expect in your CEREC software, take a cue from the Olympians and your favorite Mentor and assess where the gold is on your screen. For example, when working with bridges, often you select the connector to check the size. But since you cannot take action directly upon a connector, students are confused when there aren't any tools available when they want to increase the connector. By seeing that the connector is haloed in gold and not a tooth, it quickly helps you to figure out why the tools aren't available.

Look for the gold and save time and frustration when you are designing your restorations!