Esthetic Rehabilitation of Smile with Minimally Invasive Preparations and Thin Laminate Ceramic Veneers Using Chairside CAD/CAM System

Submit Manuscript | http://medcraveonline.com Teeth presenting diastema and misalignment are a common finding in the anterior maxillary dentition, and this fact can strongly affect the appearance of a smile, besides being displeasing for the patients.1 The current literature suggests several approaches for the correction of diastemas and misaligned teeth, such as orthodontic intervention, direct and indirect restorative treatments, or their combination [1-3]. The restorative treatment is dependent on the size of the diastemas and teeth misalignment [4,5], and the success of these procedures is based on the correct diagnosis, planning, technique and restorative material used [6]. Among the several techniques available for these cases, the most commonly employed are those using direct composite resin or indirect ceramic restorations. Direct restoration with composite resin has advantages such as conservation of tooth tissue, low cost, reversibility, besides being a relatively simple technique.5 However, indirect techniques could have a conservative preparations to receive laminated ceramic veneers that present excellent optical properties, compressive strength, surface smoothness, abrasion resistance, gloss and color stability [7]. The use of indirect restorations can be facilitated with the chairside CAD/CAM technologies, which reduce chair-time and laboratory steps.8 The evolution of CAD/CAM systems has stimulated the development of new ceramic materials, guiding the choice based on the translucency, brightness value, available space in the buccal area and the degree of tooth discoloration to optimize the aesthetic results [6-9]. Another important factor to consider when using indirect techniques for closing diastemas or correcting misaligned teeth is the clinical long term success provided by enamel bonding in minimally invasive preparations [7]. Additionally, chairside CAD/CAM technologies are helpful on determining the exact areas for removing teeth retention during preparation. Therefore, this article describes the clinical and laboratory steps of a diastema esthetic rehabilitation using chairside CAD/CAM system and emphasizes the possibilities of this technology to guide conservative preparations in retentive areas of teeth in order to create an insertion direction to thin laminate veneers and preserve enamel to achieve optimal ceramic-tooth bonding.