Richard Rosenblatt The ADA just happened and there were lots of announcements in the world of CEREC. One of them was a new material introduced by GC America call Cerasmart. I learned about this material a few months ago and got my hands on some limited samples so I thought I’d share a case or two. This material is classified similar to the newer hybrid materials like Lava Ultimate and Enamic. It is a mix of resin and ceramic. They call it a flexible nano ceramic. According to GC, the properties to expect from this block are a flexible, tough and fracture resistant block. It polishes easy and retains that polish. It has natural opalescence, is wear resistant and has high radiopacity on films. It can be repaired In the mouth and will have a kit to characterize the restorations.
I have done about a dozen or so cases and think this will be another nice choice for CEREC users when doing a variety of restorations. Here is a crown and an onlay that were recently done. The crown was done with a LT (low translucency) block and still did a nice job of blending into the tooth. The second case was an onlay using their A2 HT (high translucency) block. I’m a big fan of the hybrid materials, especially for partial coverage restorations and replacing larger direct resins in my practice. This material is not HF etched, but will be sandblasted and silanated. I tend to place a thin layer of bonding agent on the restoration, thin it out with air for 10 seconds and cure the bonding agent. I will then place isolation, total etch the tooth (you can selective etch with the newer bonding agents like Scotchbond Universal and Adhese), and then use a dual cure cement.
It is an exciting time to be a CEREC user with all the new options out there. When I first began my journey there were only 1 or 2 choices and now we have many. It’s amazing to watch this technology and its material partners continue to grow.
