cosmetic & anti-aging dentistry
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In the early days many of the patients who identified our practice with cosmetic dentistry knew about our Empress crowns. These crowns looked really cool and not only improved social lives, but career opportunities as well. Indeed, our "instant orthodontics" with Empress crowns have helped quite a number of people to look good in time for their job interviews and wedding photos.
However, even though Empress crowns have served us and our patients well, there were two problems. Firstly, Empress looks so natural because it has the translucency of natural teeth. However, if the underlying tooth has been discoloured, the darker shade will show through the material. Secondly, the strength of Empress II is only about 200MPa. In patients who have deep of heavy bites, the material may fracture. Empress bridges are known to survive only in the mouths of gentle users. With these limitations in strength and the lack of ability to mask underlying discolouration, Empress has failed to satisfy the needs of some patients.
The new e.max crowns cost only slightly more than Empress and are almost as strong as Procerasup>®. After numerous successful cases, e.max has been proven not only to function well as short-span bridges, the aesthetics are also as good as Empress.So far, e.max has turned out to be as good as the manufacturer claims. We now recommend it as the material of choice for most of our full ceramic crowns cases. Each e.max crown costs S$800 and takes about a week to complete.
 Procera® is a unique system of crown and bridge work that uses cutting edge CAD/CAM technology. There are 2 components to every procera crown. One is the zirconia core/coping and the other is the porcelain exterior which is built on top. Your dentist will prepare your crown like an emax crown. An accurate impression is taken, a stone model is cast and sent to a lab with a scanning machine. After the model is scanned, the electronic data is sent to the Procera® lab in Japan.
 A few days later, our lab in Singapore will find a white Procera® coping in the mail. This is a zirconia "inner lining" fabricated by CAD/CAM technology, guaranteed to fit. Our lab in Singapore then builds up the porcelain over the zirconia coping. The result is a very strong and aesthetic crown. Procera crowns typically take 10 days to complete and cost S$1000 each. Please call 62358316 for appointments or email us |
The technology has moved on. Since early 2006, we have been using e.max for out crowns and bridges. The manufacturers of e.max are the same folks who brought us Empress. This material is said to look just as good as Empress, but with a strength of 400MPa, it's almost 2 times stronger. Not only that, this system can incorporate an opaque layer capable of masking underlying discolouration. The strongest all-ceramic material available is Procerasup>® (see below) with a strength of about 687MPa. However, it takes a longer time to do and not many technicians in Singapore are familiar with the CAD/CAM technology involved.
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