What are zirconium crowns?

Not so long ago, doctors could offer patients who lost a tooth, only one way to restore the tooth, by installing a metal crown.  The question of aesthetics at the same time receded into the background. Today, dentistry has entered a new stage of development, which allows you to preserve both the functionality and the natural appearance of teeth through the use of modern technologies and materials. To restore the beauty of the smile and save the patient from the discomfort that bothers during chewing food, will allow prosthetics with zirconium crowns. Due to its aesthetics, strength and resistance, zirconium used in the manufacture of crowns for teeth is sometimes called white gold.

Zirconium crowns or zirconium dioxide crowns (the correct name of the chemical formula) are durable metal-free orthopedic structures made of a matte, translucent material. Zirconium crowns are one of the most reliable and practically have no contraindications to installation. They have the ability to withstand pressure, temperature changes and high aesthetics, so they are installed both on the side chewing teeth and in the smile zone. In the process of their production, CAD/CAM technology is used to mill blocks of material.

When making crowns, a 3D model of the patient’s jaws is created, and then — the prosthesis itself. On the basis of these data, the milling machine carves the frame of the structure from a zirconium billet. Therefore, inaccuracies in prosthetics are excluded: the crown perfectly repeats the shape and size of the native tooth and is closely adjacent to it and the gum.

There are two types of zirconium dental crowns:

•         zirconium based crowns covered with layers of ceramics

•         whole-zirconium

In the first case, the design consisting of two materials allows you to combine high strength and excellent appearance, since in the manufacture you can choose a ceramic mass that differs in the degree of transparency and color as close as possible to the color of the patient’s teeth. Such crowns are usually chosen when prosthetics of teeth in the smile area.

Monolithic structures are not lined with ceramics. They are very strong and can withstand significant physical exertion without chipping, deformation and loss of original qualities. The weak point of such crowns can only be called their aesthetics, since they have a bright milky color that does not have the natural translucency of enamel. This type is often chosen for prosthetics of teeth of the chewing group.