If you’ve ever needed a dental crown, you probably remember the drill (pun intended): an appointment to prep the tooth, a temporary crown to wear for a week or two, a trip to an outside lab, and a second appointment to finally get the permanent one seated. It works, but it’s slow — and that temporary crown is never quite as comfortable as the real thing.
At Mason Dental, we skip most of that. With our CEREC® same-day crown technology, we can design, mill, and bond a custom, all-ceramic crown in a single visit — no temporary, no second appointment, no waiting around for a lab. Here’s exactly what that visit looks like.
Step 1: We Prep the Tooth (Just Like Normal)
The visit starts the same way a traditional crown would. Dr. Mason numbs the area, removes any decay or damaged structure, and shapes the tooth so a crown can fit over it properly. If you’ve had a crown before, this part will feel familiar.
Step 2: We Take a Digital Scan (No Goopy Impressions)
This is where things start to look different. Instead of biting into a tray of impression material, we use a small handheld scanner to capture a precise 3D digital image of your tooth. It’s fast, it doesn’t trigger a gag reflex, and it gives us a far more accurate model to work from than a traditional mold.
Step 3: We Design Your Crown Chairside
Using that digital scan, Dr. Mason designs your custom crown right there in the office — matching it to the shape, size, and bite of your surrounding teeth. This is also where CEREC really shines for accuracy: because the design is based on an exact digital model of your mouth, the fit tends to be excellent right out of the gate.
Step 4: Our In-House Mill Creates the Crown
Once the design is finalized, that file is sent to our in-office milling machine, which carves your crown from a solid block of tooth-colored ceramic. This is the step most patients are curious about — you’re essentially watching your new tooth get made in real time, in the next room, while a lab elsewhere would normally take a week or more to do the same thing.
Prefer to just watch it directly? View the reel on Instagram.
Watch our in-office mill carve a crown in real time.
Step 5: We Bond It in Place
Once milling is done (typically well within the same appointment), Dr. Mason checks the fit and bite, makes any small adjustments, and bonds the finished crown permanently. You leave with a real, final crown — not a temporary one — and you’re done.
How Long Does It Actually Take?
Most CEREC same-day crown appointments take somewhere in the neighborhood of a couple of hours, start to finish, depending on the tooth and how much adjustment is needed. Compare that to the traditional route: two separate appointments spread across one to two weeks, plus a temporary crown in between that has to be babied (no sticky candy, no biting into apples).
Why Patients Like Not Having a Temporary Crown
Temporary crowns are functional, but they’re not built to last — they can come loose, they’re more sensitive to hot and cold, and they limit what you can comfortably eat. Skipping that step entirely is one of the more underrated benefits of CEREC, right up there with just not having to come back for a second appointment.
Is CEREC Right for Every Crown?
CEREC works well for the vast majority of crown cases we see. In more complex situations — for example, certain bridges or cases involving significant bone or gum work — Dr. Mason may recommend a lab-fabricated crown instead. If that’s the case, he’ll walk you through why before any decision is made.
Ready to See It in Person?
If you’re due for a crown, or you’ve been putting one off because you dread the multi-visit process, ask us about CEREC same-day crowns at your next appointment. Call Mason Dental at 817-481-4717 or request an appointment online — most patients tell us they wish they’d known this was an option sooner.
