Sirona celebrates 20 years of CEREC with events worldwide

CEREC, the computer-aided system for the design and manufacture of all-ceramic restorations chair-side, is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year. Since the launch of CEREC in 1986, more than 16,000 systems have been sold worldwide and in excess of 12 million restorations have been placed.

To celebrate and mark the significance of the occasion, Sirona is planning a series of 20YC symposiums in Germany, Australia and the USA throughout the year.

The first of these sees Sirona team up with Quintessenz to organize the 20YC "Art, science, education and economy in dental practice and laboratory" Symposium on March 17-18, 2006 in Berlin. More than 1,000 visitors from all over the globe are expected to attend this major event in the German capital.

This will be followed by the Australasian 20YC event for both dentists and dental technicians at the Hyatt Regency Coolum on June 22-25, 2006. The final event for the year will be in Las Vegas, October 13-15, 2006.

"We are hoping some of the 400+ CEREC users in Australia and New Zealand and anyone else interested in CAD/CAM dentistry will take the opportunity to attend one of these events and join in the celebrations," said Morné Cheetham, Director of Dental CAD/CAM at Sirona Australasia. "I have personally been involved with CEREC for 15 years and so it is particularly exciting to see this powerful concept achieve such a milestone."

The scientific program for the Berlin symposium is in the safe hands of Prof. Dr Werner H. Mörmann, who together with Dr Marco Brandestini, pioneered the CEREC procedure and performed the first CEREC restoration back in 1985.

Prof. Mörmann will also be a special guest at the local event in Coolum along with many other notable guests and speakers. The focus areas for the symposium includes: Sciences - literature review, crowns, ceramics, bonding; practice - marketing and integration, case presentations; lab - boutique materials, applications; techniques - new software, extended applications, manual correlation, antagonist bite, image acquisition; dentist workshops - lasers with CEREC, bonding and finishing, prep/powder/picture, software, stain and glaze; and lab workshops - pressing to CAD, core manipulation, scanning software and marketing.