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CNY Business Journal (1996+) - Dentist goes high-tech for tooth repair

MANLIUS - Dr. Kevin Hickey has a new, more convenient way to repair his patients' teeth.

Hickey has been using a system called CEREC 3D, manufactured by Sirona Dental Systems of Germany, since the beginning of the year. The system replaces the traditional materials, such as silver and gold, which dentists use for fillings, crowns, and other tooth repairs.

With CEREC, Hickey no longer needs to take impressions of his patients' teeth to get a crown, for example. Normally, he would have to take an impression, install a temporary crown on a tooth, send the impression to a laboratory where the crown would be made, and then have a patient return for a second visit to have the crown permanently installed.

Using CEREC, Hickey prepares the tooth and then uses a camera to take digital images of it. The images go into a computer, which the dentist then uses to design the crown. The design is then sent to a milling machine, which cuts the crown or other restoration out of a ceramic block right in the office.

The whole process takes 15 to 20 minutes.

"That's one of the big advantages of this," Hickey says. "You don't have to come back for a second appointment. You don't have to have a temporary restoration. You don't have to get numbed up again. The patients love that aspect of it."

The material CEREC uses also blends into the mouth better than other traditional materials, Hickey says, and is not as notice able to the outside eye.

"The chameleon effect of this stuff is just incredible," he says. "It's highly aesthetic."

The CEREC material behaves more like a natural tooth as well. Once in place, it expands and contracts with heat or cold.

"It's very similar to human-tooth structure," Hickey says. "Other materials tended to crack the tooth when exposed to hot or cold. This moves with the tooth."

Hickey declined to disclose the cost of the system or financial details is business. He employs four in his 1,200-square-foot office at at 8108 Cazenovia Road in the town of Manlius.

He says there are probably 10 or 12 dentists in Central New York using CEREC, which is about 20 years old.

Dentists have utilized CEREC to produce more than 4 million restorations, according to Sirona.

In addition to increased convenience for patients, CEREC also helps Hickey and his staff.

"We don't have the lab costs," Hickey says. "We also have more control over the design too. Before we had to leave it up to the lab technician."

Sirona, based in Bensheim, Germany, employs more than 1,600 people at 15 international sites. The company had sales of more than $401 million in the 2004 fiscal year.

In addition to CEREC, Sirona produces dental chairs, hand tools, Xray equipment, and systems for sterilizing dental tools.