On Sat, 21 Aug 2004 02:17:36 -0700, "Ed Price"
wrote:

Richard, you gotta pay closer attention to what the doc is doing inside your
mouth!

Caps have a ceramic layer atop a metal (titanium?) mandrel. And even more
fun is that there's a rather large and long stainless steel post that was
drilled down to nearly the end of the root of that tooth.

Hi Ed,

I know the dentistry business quite intimately. I help a buddy out
with new dentistry technologies. What you describe are rather old
techniques. My dentist built up a cap in the office on an NC machine
in 15 minutes to replace one that had been built without any coloring
(it was as white as chalk). I've only had one root canal after the
dentist got tired of waiting for years to fix the abscess (never
bothered me as much as it did him). Even then, the cap required no
post, he filled the excavation in much the same way as any prepped
cavity and capped it off.

No metal involved, much to the loss of another buddy who has a
patented technique in gold based construction. All the work I am
aware of is now done by casts. By the way, the profit margin is HUGE
for the dentist. He easily pays only $100 for the cap from the
laboratory. I can only hazard a guess to what you pay the dentist
(me, about $600).

73's
Richard Clark, KB7QHC