Routine day in the office, perfect rhythm, everyone was doing what they were suppose to do. Had one of my favorite patients coming in and we were going to redo a crown I did for her 15 years ago. A state of the art PFM crown,  at least the state of the art dentistry back then. I was planning on doing this as part of Rella Christensen’s TRAC study where a group of practitioners have been participating in clinical studies comparing emax lab processed to emax chairside.

I removed the old restoration and removed the decay, imaged and proceeded to the design. The tooth was not in what we would consider the best position, tilted mesial and due to gingival recession got a bit long.

After the design was complete,  we went to mill preview and hit a road block.  The restoration would not fit in block selected!  Problem was I selected a 14L, one of the biggest blocks available.  All the good mojo of the day flew out the window.

Quickly I start sweating, thoughts flying through my head-

Got to make a temp!

I hate temps!

I suck at temps now!

I have no pre-op impression!

I am $*(#&D !)

I scrounge through my Cerec supplies and to my relief I have a great suprise.  I don't remember ordering them but there is a fresh pack of emax 16.  Wasn't the exact shade but beggars can't be choosers, and for a black molar, not super critical to begin with.

I went to admin phase and quickly edited the restoration where material was switched to Emax and in one click I was back to the mill phase. No exclamation marks, 16 was there, MOJO is back.

These blocks are huge, not for every case since in this case the cycle went through a 2 step mill and it's time penalty, but having it in inventory definitely saved the day.

No wasted time making a temp, was able to utilize Cerec so I was not subjected to a lab bill. Using an all ceramic solution also allowed me to deliver to Ivette a restoration that was closer to her natural tooth color- not egg shell. By using the stain and glaze techniques picked up at various courses in Scottsdale I could create the illusion that the crown is a natural tooth. Depth to the occlusal table, highlights for the cusp tips, and staining to mimic the exposed roots. All simple steps that allow us to bring our dentistry to another level. Many say that these steps are not required, and they are not.

A little work but Ivette is well worth it...