CEREC Tessera Blocks & CEREC MTL Zirconia

Strength, beauty, and speed are the reasons Dr. Shivi Gupta relies on Dentsply Sirona CAD/CAM blocks for same-day dentistry in her San Diego, CA, practice. Here, she tells us how the CEREC MTL Zirconia and CEREC Tessera advanced lithium disilicate blocks have benefi ted her crowns, inlays, onlays, and veneers.

Since bringing chairside CAD/CAM into my practice 12 years ago, I’ve seen dramatic improvements in the technologies involved— from intraoral scanners to software to milling units. However, one of the most impactful advancements has been in the materials. Thanks to advances in technology, the Dentsply Sirona CAD/CAM block portfolio now has everything we need for an efficient single-visit workflow: Speed, esthetics, and durability.

Best of Both Worlds

It used to be that you had to choose between strength and beauty, but today we can have both thanks to CEREC MTL Zirconia and CEREC Tessera blocks. These blocks pair high flexural strength with beautiful esthetics, while other properties have been improved to create new efficiencies.

I use CEREC MTL Zirconia for all my zirconia restorations, and I absolutely love it. Whereas it used to be that you would only use zirconia in areas where you couldn’t really see it, that’s no longer the case thanks to the translucency and natural looking restorations. CEREC MTL Zirconia matches the VITA shade guide really well, allowing for easy color selection, and blends in very nicely with the adjacent teeth. This block also allows me to be more conservative with my preparations because it requires just a 0.6-mm reduction.

Faster Workflows

CEREC Tessera, which is an advanced lithium disilicate block, is also strong and esthetic, but what I find most incredible about this block is the processing speed. While many clinicians are used to waiting 24 minutes for their lithium disilicate block to fire, CEREC Tessera requires less than 5 minutes in a preheated CEREC SpeedFire furnace.

I’m also saving a significant amount of time with my zirconia restorations because I’m able to mill the CEREC MTL Zirconia in just under 5 minutes in the CEREC Primemill milling unit. In general, I like my processing time to be about 30 minutes, and because of the Super Fast milling, I can be way under that. I used to allocate 90 minutes to 2 hours for my single-visit crown appointments, but now they run just 60 to 75 minutes.

Our patients are busy. They don’t want to take time off work or get childcare to come to the dentist. So, not only are we able to provide a permanent crown in one appointment instead of doing two with a temporary, but I can give them that shorter time commitment where they stay for just an hour. That makes them more willing to book the treatment and it allows me to be more productive with my time.

Overall, chairside CAD/CAM is not just quicker than it used to be, but it is now so much easier to achieve an accurate and esthetic restoration while delegating much of the work to the team, which takes pride in being part of the patient's journey.