Cosmetic Dentistry

Zirconia Crowns

For years, people that have had dental crowns put in have had to deal with the unsightly grey line along there gums that develops from porcelain-fused to metal crowns. If the dentist was working with low quality metals, the line would actually turn black, marring you smile permanently. Within the last few years, there have been many advancements in cosmetic dentistry, one of which, Zirconia crowns, helps eliminate the dreaded black line.

Zirconia is an extremely strong material with properties similar to ceramic porcelain, only stronger. zirconia has replaced metal as the material of choice in hip replacement surgeries. In breakage tests, the materials have held up much better than there all ceramic counterparts, unfortunately they are still not as strong as the Porcelain fused to metal crowns.

There are however many labs making Zirconia crowns that will withstand many times the amount of pressure that could be generated inside a patients mouth. Zirconia reinforced porcelain crowns can have markedly better esthetics than the traditional porcelain-fused-to-metal crowns because zirconia is white--no gray lines, with a very good marginal seal. Tooth reduction is comparable to traditional PFMs.

There strength is not quite as good, but more than sufficient for single crowns. This doesn't solve the need for esthetic bridges, but that's what we have implants for.

Labels: zirconia crowns

posted by Kabum @ 3:50 PM