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No bite no fight; dental clinic provides same day crown service

By Staff Sgt. Joshua Turner, 354th Fighter Wing Public Affairs / Published March 29, 2016

U.S. Air Force Capt. Jeffery Kohler, a 354th Medical Group general dentist, uses a curing light on Master Sgt. Curtis Edwards, of the 354th Maintenance Squadron, March 21, 2016, at Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska. The 354th MDG dental clinic recently received dental equipment that consists of a digital impression machine, a mill and an oven, reduces a three-week, four-appointment process to a same day process completed in a few hours. (U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Joshua Turner/Released)
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U.S. Air Force Capt. Jeffery Kohler, a 354th Medical Group general dentist, uses a curing light on Master Sgt. Curtis Edwards, of the 354th Maintenance Squadron, March 21, 2016, at Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska. The 354th MDG dental clinic recently received dental equipment that consists of a digital impression machine, a mill and an oven, reduces a three-week, four-appointment process to a same day process completed in a few hours. (U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Joshua Turner/Released)

U.S. Air Force Capt. Jeffery Kohler, a 354th Medical Group general dentist, cleans around a new crown March 21, 2016, at Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska. The 354th MDG dental clinic recently received dental equipment that consists of a digital impression machine, a mill and an oven, which reduces a three-week, four-appointment process to a same day process completed in a few hours. (U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Joshua Turner/Released)
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U.S. Air Force Capt. Jeffery Kohler, a 354th Medical Group general dentist, cleans around a new crown March 21, 2016, at Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska. The 354th MDG dental clinic recently received dental equipment that consists of a digital impression machine, a mill and an oven, which reduces a three-week, four-appointment process to a same day process completed in a few hours. (U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Joshua Turner/Released)

U.S. Air Force Tech. Sgt. Timothy McGee, a 354th Medical Group dental laboratory technician, applies finishing touches to a porcelain crown March 21, 2016, at Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska. McGee manually applied finishing touches to the crown by making a series of adjustments to provide the patient with a proper fit. (U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Joshua Turner/Relased)
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U.S. Air Force Tech. Sgt. Timothy McGee, a 354th Medical Group dental laboratory technician, applies finishing touches to a porcelain crown March 21, 2016, at Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska. McGee manually applied finishing touches to the crown by making a series of adjustments to provide the patient with a proper fit. (U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Joshua Turner/Relased)

U.S. Air Force Tech. Sgt. Timothy McGee, a 354th Medical Group dental laboratory technician, polishes a porcelain crown March 21, 2016, at Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska. McGee manually applied finishing touches to the crown by making a series of adjustments to provide the patient with a proper fit. (U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Joshua Turner/Relased)
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U.S. Air Force Tech. Sgt. Timothy McGee, a 354th Medical Group dental laboratory technician, polishes a porcelain crown March 21, 2016, at Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska. McGee manually applied finishing touches to the crown by making a series of adjustments to provide the patient with a proper fit. (U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Joshua Turner/Relased)

U.S. Air Force Capt. Jeffery Kohler, a 354th Medical Group general dentist, takes an optical impression of a patient March 21, 2016, at Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska. Optical impressions replaced the old wet impression process, decreasing the time needed to create a physical cast of a tooth. The new process reduced completion of crowns from three weeks to approximately two hours. (U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Joshua Turner/Relased)
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U.S. Air Force Capt. Jeffery Kohler, a 354th Medical Group general dentist, takes an optical impression of a patient March 21, 2016, at Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska. Optical impressions replaced the old wet impression process, decreasing the time needed to create a physical cast of a tooth. The new process reduced completion of crowns from three weeks to approximately two hours. (U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Joshua Turner/Relased)

U.S. Air Force Tech. Sgt. Timothy McGee, a 354th Medical Group dental laboratory technician, applies finishing touches to a porcelain crown March 21, 2016, at Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska. McGee manually applied finishing touches to the crown by making a series of adjustments to provide the patient with a proper fit. (U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Joshua Turner/Relased)
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U.S. Air Force Tech. Sgt. Timothy McGee, a 354th Medical Group dental laboratory technician, applies finishing touches to a porcelain crown March 21, 2016, at Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska. McGee manually applied finishing touches to the crown by making a series of adjustments to provide the patient with a proper fit. (U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Joshua Turner/Relased)

Raw porcelain is milled into a crown March 21, 2016, at Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska. A new machine uses a series of precise calculations and measurements to create a crown from the material in approximately 20 minutes. (U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Joshua Turner/Released)
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Raw porcelain is milled into a crown March 21, 2016, at Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska. A new machine uses a series of precise calculations and measurements to create a crown from the material in approximately 20 minutes. (U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Joshua Turner/Released)

U.S. Air Force Capt. Jeffery Kohler, a 354th Medical Group general dentist, takes an optical impression of a patient March 21, 2016, at Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska. Optical impressions replaced the old wet impression process, decreasing the time needed to create a physical cast of a tooth. The new process reduced completion of crowns from three weeks to approximately two hours. (U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Joshua Turner/Relased)
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U.S. Air Force Capt. Jeffery Kohler, a 354th Medical Group general dentist, takes an optical impression of a patient March 21, 2016, at Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska. Optical impressions replaced the old wet impression process, decreasing the time needed to create a physical cast of a tooth. The new process reduced completion of crowns from three weeks to approximately two hours. (U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Joshua Turner/Relased)

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EIELSON AIR FORCE BASE, Alaska --

The 354th Medical Group dental clinic recently received equipment that can help keep Icemen deployable when they’re in need of a root canal and a crown.

 The equipment, which consists of a digital impression machine, a mill and an oven, significantly reduces a time-intensive, three week process and turns it into a same day process completed in a few hours. 

“We’re looking at taking a four-appointment process down to a single appointment, saving so much time we can keep our Airmen deployable same day versus having to wait,” said Capt. Jeffery Kohler, a 354th Medical Group general dentist. 

Prior to the new equipment the process took so much time because the crown would have to be fabricated from a dental lab in Colorado Springs, Colo., which would take weeks to be molded and mailed back to Eielson.

 The new process uses a digital impression machine that takes thousands of images to create a digital 3-D image of the teeth. Based on the images, a program creates a proposed crown, which the dentist can then manipulate to ensure it is a perfect fit. Once the dentist is satisfied with the digital crown the data is sent to a milling machine that carves the crown out of porcelain. The crown is then placed into an oven to strengthen the material. After the crown cools off it is polished, sanitized and ready for the patient.

 “One of the major benefits of this process is saving time,” Kohler said. “From a mobilization standpoint, we can get our Airmen ready to fight faster.”