Peter Gardell A few weeks ago I heard the sad news about the passing of Dr. Joel Benk of Atlanta. He was a CEREC doctor and trainer in the Atlanta area. I had the pleasure of listening to him very early in my CEREC career. He taught me the building blocks for my foundation for great esthetic CEREC restorations. He called it the long bevel.
Up to this point I did not have an appreciation for materials. Joel helped in opening my eyes to what can be done when you start to understand the materials you are using, The strengths and weaknesses of their esthetics so you can the final result you want and the patient deserves.
What he taught was to have a nice tapered facial wall of your prep, shoulder width of .75 mm with the thickness of the ceramic expanding to 1.25 mm or so. Then use one of the HT materials available for chairside and mill it. The gingival 1/3 is the thinnest so the warmth of the dentin shows through. In the occlusal the ceramic is thicker allowing the shade of the block to show. It is what enamel does. It is an anatomic effect that can be attained without being an illusionist with stain and glaze.
Since we utilize adhesive dentistry we can be confident that a prep, such as the one shown above, will work successfully for a long long time.
Over the years I have learned many, many pearls from many great teachers. It always hurts when I hear one is no longer around to help the CEREC community. Thank you Joel!
