Services

Image Gallery offers a full range of dental restoration products and services.

• Personalized Coloring
• All Porcelain Crowns
• Implants
• Porcelain Fused to Metal
• Gold Crowns
• Diagnostic Wax-Up
• Face Bow

Personalized Coloring

A beautiful smile looks proportionate, believable and natural. For the best result, it is crucial that the hue, chroma and value of a restoration appear indistinguishable from the other teeth. Our skilled artisans have the ability to accomplish this goal, even with the most challenging cases, such as matching a single crown or a three unit bridge to the existing lateral.

We rely on X-Rite Shade Vision Technology to help us build precise colors in precise positions to create a tooth indistinguishable from the adjacent teeth. This eliminates the subjectivity of the human eye and achieves a highly accurate tooth-colored match prior to placement. The system is the most detailed and comprehensive color matching system available.

All Porcelain Crowns

For your all porcelain needs, we offer three different products that will solve your cosmetic situations. It is no secret that all porcelain is the most cosmetic pleasing restoration we can offer our patients. The reason is simple - light travels through the porcelain contacting a natural tooth and then bounces back to the eye which then perceives a natural tooth. With porcelain bonding to gold you will always have an unnatural blockage because of the gold which is behind the porcelain. Although we try to add refractrant porcelain to break up the light it will always look different in different light. The three different products we offer are as follows:

• Feldspathic Porcelain built on Refractory Models

Very few laboratories offer this technique because it is very difficult and labor intensive. The Feldspathic Porcelain built on Refractory Models is one of the most cosmetic restorations offered. We are able to build many different colors into the crown and put the color exactly where it is supposed to be. We build our anterior teeth directly on the models using Noritake Super Porcelain EX-3, made by the world-famous manufacturer of exquisite china. Noritake has exceptional handling characteristics to allow for the most lifelike restorations possible. This porcelain also has screening porcelains allowing blockage of darker teeth.

• Pressed Ceramics

This technique is also very aesthetic and is a little stronger than the feldspathic porcelain. Depending on the desired final coloring result, we will use either the Noritake Pressed or Avante Pressed porcelains. The pressed units are fabulous for bleached teeth and teeth that do not have a lot of characterization. We can help to evaluate which system will give the most desired result for your patient’s needs.

• 3M ESPE Lava™ Zirconia CAD/CAM Restorations

With the introduction of Zirconia as a dental material and the CAD/CAM system, clinicians are able to prepare and place all ceramic (high strength ceramics) restorations in the anterior and posterior regions. This is due to the high flexural strength and high fracture toughness of the Zirconia ceramic material.

We have conducted research for the past three years on all of the different CAD/CAM Systems available and we have chosen to go with the 3M ESPE Lava™ System, which is the best, highest quality system offered. We have always been about quality and we will continue to be about quality. We are very proud and excited to announce that we are currently a Design Center! We recommend Lava crowns for posterior teeth and bridge work. However, for anterior teeth, if you need to completely block out the prep color or if you need extra strength Lava crowns are great for this purpose.

Implants – Implant crowns are a great way to replace a missing tooth, providing a way to keep teeth separate and a structure for gum tissue to remain as full as possible. Image Gallery is well versed in all implant systems and can consult on what will be best for each situation, whether it’s metal implants with a Lava™ crown on top or zirconium with pressed ceramics. The skill and education of our technicians allow us to work with any system and still have the end result look natural.

Porcelain Fused to Metal Crowns – Porcelain fused to metal is a proven technology done by the lost wax technique. At Image Gallery, we only use noble metals to make this restoration. But with gold prices going upward we do offer different percentages of gold in the alloy.

We currently use Dentsply Ceramco alloy which is made in Germany. This is a very reputable company who offers quality alloys and is part of the Identalloy Certificate System. Using metals that are compatible with the oral environment and have the proper coefficient with the porcelain help us make the decision on which materials are best for your patients. The reality is porcelain is glass. Glass can fracture, but done properly with cusp fossa relations and metal substructures designed to support the porcelain these types of restorations can last ten to twenty years.

The difference in using the 48% gold alloy and the 2% gold alloy is the oxide on the metal during the degassing phase. Opaque bonds to the oxide and porcelain bonds to the opaque. You get your strength for the restoration from the metal which is cemented to the tooth. So as the tooth moves in the mouth the metal will give enough strength to keep the porcelain strong. The 2% gold alloy will produce a very black oxide on the metal causing more opaque to be used to mask out the metal. The 48% gold will produce a light grey oxide allowing less opaque. We use Noritake EX3 or Duceram Kiss Feldspathic Porcelain to get proper coloring for these restorations. You can get the MSDS sheets on all these materials on our website by clicking the Product Safety button.

Captek Crowns - This is another kind of porcelain fused to metal restoration. The process applies gold first to a refractory model die and fired; then a second firing for the platinum is applied. This produces a very bright gold yellow coping which porcelain can be fused on top to make a beautiful restoration. Because of the warm gold color of the coping, less opaque is required and it allows a very warm undertone color for the final tooth. The only downfall is the softness of the metal causes it to have too much flex in the coping so it cannot be used for molars. It is wonderful for bicuspids forward, however.

Gold Crowns - Gold crowns will always be used in dentistry. For this restoration we are currently using a 56% gold. With gold prices skyrocketing we try to use a metal that will keep the tissue healthy as well as your pocket book. The metal of choice right now is Ney-Oro®. If you go any lower than the 56% gold you will get the pink rose color of alloy instead of the yellow gold. Obviously molars that have very little occlusal room are perfect for the gold crown.

Diagnostic Wax-Up – Cosmetic dentistry is detailed and challenging work. Preliminary wax-ups are a cost-saving way to ensure your patients will be pleased with the final result of their restoration, working out any potential difficulties ahead of time. Once function and look are approved, we will duplicate the process for the final prosthesis. We also have the capability of making temporaries for you, so that your patients look great throughout their entire dentistry process.

Face Bow – Since perfect symmetry is rarely found in nature, special attention to detail is key for a beautiful smile. For anterior work, we know the importance of getting the same angle from the patient to the articulator. We will come to your office and take a face bow transfer onsite to ensure the best aesthetic result. We believe in being better than close – our goal is to be exact.

Now learn more about our standards in product safety