Hi Mark! Thanks for your question. It seems to me that you need crowns on your molars. Your teeth are probably heavily filled or broken and the only way to restore them is by crowning them. You have been given many options, which may be confusing. Let me help. There are two types of cerec and I am not sure which one you have been quoted for. Cerec that is housed in a dental surgery is a cad/cam system that manufactures crowns in-house. The procedure involves taking a digital image of your tooth preparation and sending the data to a milling unit that cuts the crown out of a block of ceramic. Cerec, which is housed in a dental laboratory, uses a conventional plaster model for the scanning process and the data is sent to the milling unit. Very often only a thin coping or shell is cut and the final shape of the crown is layered with ceramic and fired in a porcelain furnace. The fit and quality of a laboratory-made cerec is far better in my opinion, because the crown margins are checked on a duplicate plaster die under magnification. Margin gaps or any defects can be corrected before returning to the dentist. The crown shade can also be changed according to specifications. Then you have been told to have a laboratory-made crown. There are various options. Cerec, porcelain fused to metal (PFM), Procera, Empress, Lava, Inceram, gold etc, etc. This is all very confusing, because trade names are confusing. I would like to make it easy. Porcelain crowns usually require a strong core inside. This may be in the form of a metal or a stronger ceramic (Alumina, Zirconia) for strength. Without this support, porcelain fractures. Very similar to a concrete bridge that requires metal rods inside for strength. Gold crowns have been used for decades, because of its excellent fit, biocompatibility and occlusal wear, especially in molars. The colour to me is unsightly, but dentist that prescribe gold crowns know that they will last for a long time without any problems. I for instance, would not settle for gold because of its colour, but some patients do not mind. We use “Lava” instead of “Cerec”. The manufacturing process is very similar, but we simply use the product because it is backed by 3M and comes with a five year written guarantee. The coping or shell is manufactured for us and we simply layer additional ceramic on top of the zirconia to complete the final shape of the crown. Empress is a pressed ceramic, which we use for front teeth, because of its aesthetic translucency. If you like you can see me and I’ll be happy to explain further. The things to remember is that you need strong crowns for molars with an excellent fit. If you can have them manufactured in a colour that blends in with the rest of your teeth, you have a winner. Laboratories specialise in the making of crowns and if you can choose a dentist that uses an excellent laboratory you are safe.. Thank You. Hope that helps! Michael.