Cerec
Pronunciation: sə-REK
Also written as: CEREC — Chairside Economical Restoration of Esthetic Ceramics
A proprietary chairside CAD/CAM system developed by Dentsply Sirona for the same-visit design and milling of ceramic and composite restorations, widely used as a genericised trade name in dental literature.
Full Definition
CEREC (Chairside Economical Restoration of Esthetic Ceramics) is a registered trademark of Dentsply Sirona denoting an integrated optical impression, software design, and milling unit system. In published literature, the name has acquired semi-genericised usage to describe any chairside CAD/CAM workflow, a practice that editors should monitor and correct where accuracy is required. All-caps 'CEREC' is the correct typographic form; lowercase or mixed-case variants are errors. Authors describing multi-brand CAD/CAM comparisons should use 'chairside CAD/CAM' as the generic descriptor and reserve 'CEREC' for Dentsply Sirona-specific references. The system processes primarily feldspathic porcelain, leucite-reinforced glass-ceramic, and polymer-infiltrated ceramic network (PICN) blocks.
Usage
Usage note: Always render as all-caps 'CEREC'. Flag genericised use in manuscripts that describe non-Dentsply Sirona systems. On first mention, expand the acronym or confirm the brand context.
In Context
- "The manuscript used 'CEREC' to describe a competing chairside system; the editor corrected this to 'chairside CAD/CAM' to avoid implying a specific brand." — Peer-reviewed clinical trial copyediting
- "CEREC restorations were seated without a separate laboratory phase, reducing total treatment time to a single appointment." — Clinical case report