When it comes to restorative dentistry, zirconia crowns have emerged as a superior solution for patients seeking durable and esthetically pleasing dental restorations. Zirconia, a biocompatible ceramic material, offers a range of advantages that make it a popular choice among dentists and patients alike. In this blog post, we will delve into the benefits of zirconia crowns, exploring their strength, aesthetics, and long-term reliability. As a trusted dental lab specializing in zirconia crown fabrication, KC Dental Lab is committed to providing dentists with high-quality restorations that deliver exceptional outcomes.

I. Unparalleled Strength and Durability of Zirconia Crowns:

Zirconia crowns are renowned for their exceptional strength and durability, making them an ideal choice for both posterior and anterior restorations. The inherent properties of zirconia allow for excellent load-bearing capacity, resisting fractures and chipping. This durability ensures that zirconia crowns can withstand the forces of occlusion, providing long-lasting solutions for patients. By partnering with KC Dental Lab, dentists can offer their patients restorations that not only look natural but also offer unmatched strength and reliability.

II. Natural-Looking Aesthetics: Creating Beautiful Smiles:

One of the key advantages of zirconia crowns is their ability to replicate the natural appearance of teeth. With their translucent properties and shade-matching capabilities, zirconia crowns blend seamlessly with the surrounding teeth, resulting in esthetically pleasing restorations. This makes zirconia crowns an excellent choice for patients who desire a beautiful smile. KC Dental Lab understands the importance of achieving natural-looking aesthetics and employs advanced techniques to create zirconia crowns that exhibit lifelike characteristics, enhancing patient satisfaction.

III. Biocompatibility and Oral Health Benefits:

Zirconia is a biocompatible material, meaning it is well-tolerated by the human body. Unlike certain metal-based restorations, zirconia crowns do not cause adverse reactions or allergic responses in patients. Additionally, zirconia crowns do not conduct heat or cold, minimizing sensitivity and discomfort for individuals with temperature sensitivity. Furthermore, zirconia crowns have a smooth surface that resists plaque accumulation, promoting better oral hygiene and reducing the risk of periodontal issues. By offering zirconia crowns fabricated by KC Dental Lab, dentists can ensure the oral health and well-being of their patients.

IV. Preserving Tooth Structure: Minimally Invasive Dentistry:

Another significant advantage of zirconia crowns is their ability to preserve natural tooth structure. Due to the high strength of zirconia, minimal reduction of the tooth is required for crown preparation. This conservative approach helps to maintain the integrity of the remaining tooth structure, reducing the need for extensive drilling and preserving healthy tooth enamel. With zirconia crowns, dentists can provide their patients with minimally invasive dentistry, promoting long-term oral health.

V. Long-Term Reliability and Patient Satisfaction:

Zirconia crowns have a proven track record of long-term success, offering patients reliable restorations that stand the test of time. With proper oral hygiene and regular dental visits, zirconia crowns can last for many years, providing patients with a durable and functional solution. The combination of strength, aesthetics, biocompatibility, and preservation of tooth structure contributes to high patient satisfaction. By partnering with KC Dental Lab for zirconia crown fabrication, dentists can ensure that their patients receive restorations that not only meet their functional needs but also exceed their expectations in terms of aesthetics and longevity.

Dental lab technicians play an often underrated role in the US dental care system. It is their job to craft the crowns, bridges, dentures, and other prostheses needed to help an individual recover and restore their smile. It is a highly specialized arrangement that involves craftsmanship, precision, and attention to detail. The US labor force has over 30,000 persons in the dental lab technician field, located from coast to coast and in every state.

The job of tooth technician is not for everyone. Many of those in the field are highly-trained professionals with 10 to 15 years or more experience. Qualifications may include formal education and certifications in dental laboratory technology, dental materials sciences, dental anatomy, and more. It is their commitment to quality and their craftsmanship that ensures a superior product.

For the most part, dental lab technicians are grouped into the category of ‘dental assistant’, but they do perform specialized duties. They first receive a model or request from a dentist, from which they will craft the actual prostheses. During the process, technicians collaborate with the dentist on the design of the prosthesis and also review available materials, advise the dentist on the durability, and make sure it meets the desired aesthetic objectives. Depending on the prosthesis that is being fabricated, the process is often meticulous, requiring many steps and attention to detail.

In addition to prosthetics, technicians may also provide repairs and polishing services for existing prosthetic items. They may also craft retainers, mouth guards, splints, dentures, and similar items. As technology evolves, some technicians are also called upon to perform CAD/CAM operations to embrace the latest fabrication techniques.

Generally, a dental lab technician earns an averagerange of 28,000 to 35,000 US Dollars a year. Some technicians with higher levels of education may earn more, while those with limited experience will likely earn less. It is reported that those technicians working in states like California, Washington, and New York tend to make more money, while the state of Georgia pays their dental lab technicians better than most other states.

Music to their ears? Probably not, but the job of a dental lab technician is essential to the health of everyone in the United States. Without them, there would be no way to produce the prostheses we need to restore smiles and give people their confidence back. They surely deserve our admiration and respect.

For almost 40 years,dentistry has been associated with some form of CAD/CAM technology. We have been scanning teeth and models for decades and using CNC technology to mill and manufacture restorations. This process has been purely reductive, meaning a block or ingot is ground or milled down to produce the final restoration. However, with the advent of additive manufacturing—think 3D printing—we are entering a new era of dental manufacturing, and it’s going to be a very exciting time.

Traditional milling of dental restorations began with diamond grinding of glass ceramics. Feldspathic blocks were ground using dual-motor CNC machines to create inlays/onlays and crowns. This process would sometimes take upward of 30–45 minutes. At the time, this was an incredible innovation, but today that amount of time would be simply unacceptable.

Fast-forward to today and the milling processes are light years ahead of where we started. Today, I can send a restoration from my CEREC Primescan, which was designed using only a few clicks, to my Primemill and have a full-contour zirconia restoration manufactured in less than five minutes. It’s incredible to think how much further we can go with the speed, accuracy, and efficiency we have in our current technology. And that is only in the chairside world.

Our laboratory partners have even more incredible technology that allows them not only to manufacture high-quality restorations efficiently, but on a much larger scale. Using large five-axis milling machines, laboratories can manufacture dozens of restorations at once out of a single puck of material. This has helped reduce the overhead for labs and increase their output. The modern dental lab technician may no longer have a CDT degree, but instead a computer science and graphic design background. Design and milling restorations will forever be a computer-guided process.

Within the last five to seven years, the world of 3D printing has exploded onto the dental scene. Formlabs was one of the first manufacturers to target the dental market with its Form2 printer. Using a vat filled with uncured resin, a very detailed laser would systematically cure the resin onto a build platform to create dental models from digital impressions. My first 3D printer would typically take 10–12 hours to manufacture a model, and that was completely acceptable at the time. In fact, it was exciting to finally eliminate alginate, stone, and a model trimmer!

Today, companies such as SprintRay and Dentsply Sirona are creating powerful and innovative 3D printing solutions that are speeding up the manufacturing process by leaps and bounds. On my Primeprint, I can produce a set of models in fewer than 30 minutes, which was unheard of just a few years ago.

With the rapid pace of innovation, research, and development—specifically regarding biocompatible materials and resins—it’s only a matter of time before additive manufacturing becomes the standard in dentistry. It took us almost 40 years to take a milled crown down from 40 minutes to five, and only two to three years to take a 12-hour printing process down to 30 minutes. We are already printing surgical guides and splints and provisionals today. I imagine within a few years, 3D printing of definitive restorations will have a significant place in the market. Regardless, I’m excited to just be along for the ride.  

Editor’s note: This article appeared in the May 2022 print edition of Dental Economics magazine. Dentists in North America are eligible for a complimentary print subscription.