One visit · CEREC milled on site
Hammons Family Dental designs, mills, and bonds permanent porcelain crowns in a single appointment at its Georgetown office, 1502 Blue Ridge Drive, Suite 101, using CEREC technology on site. There is no temporary crown, no second numbing appointment, and no two-week wait for an outside lab. Most same-day crown appointments take about two hours from start to finish.
A crown covers and protects a tooth that is cracked, heavily filled, worn down, or has had a root canal. The traditional way to make one takes two appointments and an outside laboratory. CEREC takes a digital scan, designs the crown chairside, mills it from a solid ceramic block in the office, and bonds it the same day.
One visit vs. two
Both approaches produce a durable, well-fitting crown. The difference is in what happens between the preparation and the final result.
| Same-day CEREC crown | Traditional lab crown | |
|---|---|---|
| Appointments | One, about two hours | Two, two to three weeks apart |
| Temporary crown | None | Worn between visits — can loosen or come off |
| Times numbed | Once | Twice |
| Impressions | Digital scan | Usually a physical impression tray |
| Time off work | One block | Two separate trips |
| Material | Milled ceramic, shade-matched chairside | Wider material range, including layered porcelain |
| Better for | Most single crowns, especially back teeth | Complex cosmetic cases in the smile line, bridges, multiple units |
The appointment
Bring a book or headphones for the milling stage — that's the one part where you're waiting rather than being worked on. Timings are typical rather than guaranteed.
We confirm a crown is the right answer for the tooth — sometimes a filling or an onlay is enough, and sometimes the tooth needs a root canal first. Then the area is numbed.
First 20 minutesDecay and any failing old filling material are removed, and the tooth is shaped to receive the crown. This is the same preparation a traditional crown requires.
About 30 minutesAn intraoral camera captures the prepared tooth and the bite. Dr. Hammons designs the crown on screen — contours, contacts, and how it meets the opposing teeth — and you can see it being built.
About 15 minutesThe in-office milling unit cuts your crown from a solid ceramic block, then it's stained and glazed to match the shade of the teeth around it. This is the stage where you wait.
Roughly 15–30 minutesWe check the fit and your bite, adjust as needed, and permanently bond the crown. You leave with the finished tooth — and can generally eat normally once the anesthetic wears off.
Final 20 minutesBeing straight with you
Same-day crowns suit the large majority of single-crown cases, and back teeth in particular. There are cases where we will recommend the traditional two-visit route instead, and we would rather tell you that at the start than have you disappointed at the end.
Front teeth in a high smile line sometimes call for layered porcelain built by a ceramist, because matching the translucency and internal characterization of a natural incisor is genuinely hard to beat by hand. Multi-unit bridges, full-mouth reconstruction, and cases where the bite itself is being changed also generally need lab involvement. A tooth with an active infection or one requiring a root canal needs that treatment resolved before any crown goes on it.
If your case falls into one of those categories, we'll explain why and lay out the alternative before you're committed to anything.
Inside the Georgetown office
Everything that would normally be shipped to an outside laboratory happens about twenty feet from the chair you're sitting in.
Cost and coverage
A CEREC crown is generally billed the same as a traditional crown — the technology removes the laboratory step rather than adding a surcharge on top of it. Most dental plans cover crowns at their usual restorative percentage, subject to your annual maximum and any waiting period.
We verify your benefits and give you the out-of-pocket figure before treatment begins. If a crown turns out not to be necessary, we'll say so; a well-placed filling or onlay is a better answer for a tooth that doesn't yet need full coverage.
Office hours
Same-day crown appointments need a longer block than a routine visit, so call (512) 713-1101 rather than booking online if you want one scheduled — we'll find a slot that fits the full two hours.
| Monday | 7:00 AM – 6:00 PM |
|---|---|
| Tuesday | 7:00 AM – 6:00 PM |
| Wednesday | 7:00 AM – 6:00 PM |
| Thursday | 7:00 AM – 6:00 PM |
| Friday | 8:00 AM – 5:00 PM |
| Saturday | Closed |
| Sunday | Closed |
FAQ
Yes. Our Georgetown office has CEREC technology on site, so the crown is scanned, designed, milled from a ceramic block, shade-matched, and permanently bonded in a single appointment — typically about two hours. It is a permanent crown, not a temporary one. There is no second appointment and no second numbing.
Around two hours for most single crowns. Roughly the first hour covers the exam, anesthetic, and preparing the tooth; then about fifteen minutes of digital scanning and chairside design; fifteen to thirty minutes of milling while you wait; and a final twenty minutes to fit, adjust the bite, and bond it.
For the great majority of cases, yes. CEREC crowns are milled from a solid block of ceramic rather than layered by hand, which makes them structurally consistent and well suited to back teeth that take heavy chewing load. Where a lab still has the edge is complex cosmetic work in the smile line, where a ceramist can layer porcelain to mimic the translucency of a natural front tooth.
Generally no. A CEREC crown is typically billed comparably to a traditional crown — the in-office mill replaces the outside laboratory rather than adding a fee on top of it. Most dental plans cover crowns at their usual restorative percentage, subject to your annual maximum. We verify your benefits and give you the out-of-pocket figure before starting.
Shade is selected and the crown is stained and glazed chairside, with your surrounding teeth right there for comparison — which is actually an advantage over sending a shade tab to a lab across town. For a front tooth in a high smile line, we'll discuss whether a layered lab crown would give a better result before proceeding.
With good home care and routine checkups, crowns commonly last well over a decade, and often considerably longer. What shortens that is decay at the margin where the crown meets the tooth, grinding or clenching, and gum disease. If you grind your teeth, a nightguard protects the investment and we'll raise it if we see the wear pattern.
Often, yes — and it is one of the strongest arguments for having the mill in the building. A tooth that fractures on a Tuesday can frequently be crowned on that same Tuesday rather than spending three weeks under a temporary. Call (512) 713-1101 early in the day and see our emergency dentistry page for what to do in the meantime.
It depends how much sound tooth structure is left. A crown is indicated when a tooth is cracked, has a large failing filling, is significantly worn, or has had a root canal — situations where the remaining structure can't reliably hold up on its own. Where a filling or an onlay will do the job, that is what we'll recommend. The exam and x-ray answer this before any decision is made.
What Georgetown patients say
One appointment
Call (512) 713-1101 to have a same-day crown appointment scheduled as a single block, or book online for an exam first if you're not sure a crown is what the tooth needs.