Ages ago, dental work was primitive. Because good dental hygiene wasn’t promoted back then, more teeth fell out (or had to be extracted). Anesthetics were primitive too. You took a shot of whiskey and when the dentist thought the whiskey “kicked in”, you opened your mouth; he reached in with funny-shaped pliers and yanked your tooth out. Isn’t it amazing the technological advances we have at our disposal today?

At the office of Dr. Robert Rodriguez, we’d like to introduce you to some of those advances, which not only make your life less complicated, but with less discomfort and time spent coming in for repeated visits.

Every single piece of hand-held equipment that Dr. Rodriguez and his staff use are completely sterilized in a device called an autoclave. This means that any germs which could get into your mouth are eliminated and each tool is placed in its own sterile pouch until ready for use. The pouches keep the implements sterile, meaning less exposure to the air prior to use. This means that the chances are greatly reduced for germs to enter into areas of your mouth that could cause infection.

CEREC is an acronym for Chairside Economical Restoration of Esthetic Ceramics. While that’s a mouthful of words to remember, it’s important to know because there are very few of these devices in use today in San Antonio. Dr. Rodriguez is a frontrunner in the introduction of this new technology into the San Antonio market, which saves patients time and money in having an entire tooth (or a portion thereof) molded and shaped out of ceramic compounds while you wait, so you achieve the results in a single visit!

When Dr. Rodriguez has finished attaching and polishing the ceramic tooth it looks just like your natural teeth and it’s metal-free! The material is high-grade, anti-abrasive and plaque-resistant. By using CEREC, Dr. Rodriguez can save more of the healthy part of your tooth. The CEREC can be used to make partial and full crowns, veneers and each tooth is customized to fit any single-tooth restoration possible; again, all in a single visit!

CAD/CAM is a part of the CEREC procedure. The CAD/CAM (computer-aided design) actually contains the milling machine, which is completely accurate in its depiction and formation of your replacement tooth.

Once Dr. Rodriguez takes a digital image of your tooth and obtains the tooth’s exact dimensions, this information is fed directly into the CAD/CAM, which shapes the replacement tooth material into a custom-fitted restoration. As you can see from the photos, the replacement restorations look just like your natural teeth … and it’s all done in just one visit!

This device is great for complimenting x-rays of your mouth, because this dental mirror-sized instrument has a built-in light source, which gives Dr. Rodriguez and his staff easy-to-see video and still pictures. With this device, Dr. Rodriguez can produce an entire visual tour of your mouth or just zoom in on one tooth. The images can either be displayed on a monitor or printed out for personal use or insurance purposes. The intraoral camera allows you to see broken fillings and cracked teeth, as well as plaque build-up and cavities. The camera even picks up signs of gum disease or excessive wear. You’ll get a clearer understanding of your actual dental condition and will be able to make a better decision regarding treatment.

DIAGNOdent operates off of harmless pulses of laser light to locate tooth decay under the surface of your teeth. If any decay is found, DIAGNOdent emits a fluorescent light, which bounces back to the sensor and is translated into an audible signal and provides Dr. Rodriguez with a digital readout. As a result of this revolutionary technology, you’ll be able to retain more of your own natural tooth because decay is caught early on before it has a chance to do extensive damage. DIAGNOdent picks up the diagnostic slack where visual exploration, dental explorers and x-rays leave off.