Estimated reading time: 2 minutes
by Dr Amol Dabholkar, Smiles Dental Care, Margate, QLD
Primescan and Primemill work together to create CEREC restorations. They quickly and efficiently make crowns, inlays and onlays. We deal with a lot of fractured teeth, cavities and replacement fillings so both units get daily use. It’s made our working life much easier.
What’s good about it
Primescan has a slender head that makes it easy to move around the mouth and quickly capture a complete scan. The previous version, Omniscan, usually required three passes to capture all the required information. With Primescan, I scan the buccal and then the lingual side and it’s done. The unit has great depth of field and the information creates high-quality images.
Having a CEREC scanner and mill means that everything connects smoothly. The software is quite advanced so we don’t need to make too many adjustments. The scanning takes about four minutes and the designing about five minutes. Generally, within 10 minutes, everything is done.
The mill unit has software where we input the type of block and the shade we require. The results are produced in under 10 minutes and look fantastic. Very minimal adjustment is required when fitting them to the patient. Everything is completed in one appointment with simple cases done in 90 minutes from start to finish.
In the three years we’ve owned these units, they’ve both run reliably. Very rarely, they get a bit temperamental but the online support from Dentsply Sirona is excellent. Any issues are solved quickly and the unit is ready to go again.
What’s not so good
The only negative part is the cost. The initial investment is very high but we’ve found that we are using both units so regularly, we should be able to recover the cost within 12 months. Despite the large outlay, it’s going to earn its money back.
