Zirconia

Zirconium is one of the oldest and most abundant elements in the terrestrial crust and it is the basis for Zirconium oxid (yttrium stabilized Zirconium dioxid). This first-class-performance material was successfully used for artificial limbs and joints in the medical field in the last decades and now it is also available to the dental industry. Due to its excellent biological characteristics, Zirconium is nowadays the preferred material for dental restorations. Its use in the dental field is on the increase since the 1990s. It is assumed that 15,000 to 20,000 units are realized in zirconium every day. In vitro tests revealed that zirconium bridges and metal ceramic bridges on the basis of precious metal alloy show the same fracture resistance.

It is possible to produce single crowns and bridges up to 14 elements with zirconia material. For this purpose the crosssection of the connectors has to be taken into consideration. No special preparation methods are required for our system. Tangential, step and chamfer preparation are acceptable, nevertheless too short dies – smaller than 4 mm – have to be avoided due to lower friction. Zirconia bridges and crowns can be temporarily cemented with cements used for metal ceramics but never use a Hirtenstab for their removal. Use glasionmer cements for permanent cementation. Also zinc phosphate or Panavia can be used and show good results. Special conditioning of the dies and the inner surface of crowns is not necessary. For occlusal trimming2 we recommend the use of fine-granular water cooled diamonds. Various criteria have to be taken into consideration, you can learn more about them on our website. Trephination of a zirconium oxide restoration is uncomplicated. New diamond abrasives at low number of revolutions cooled by water should be used. Crowns have to be slit like metal ceramic restorations.

If you need more information on the material, please have a look at the following website:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zirconium_dioxide