Fixed Prosthetics
Fixed prosthetics includes a whole set of restorative solutions in dentistry. The focus of fixed prosthetics are dental crowns and bridges, which are the most common fixed solutions, when it comes to restoration of one or more lost teeth.
Fixed prosthetics are the best solution for the patient, because of its longevity, and natural teeth feeling. Crowns and bridges can be fixed to patients own drilled teeth, to the posts inserted in the natural tooth root or to dental implants, placed into the jawbone.
- Ceramic dental crowns are the best solution in modern dentistry
- Veneers are thin ceramic covers of the teeth
Dental Crowns
Dental crowns are the most common prosthetic work in the world, and we use them when our natural teeth are badly damaged and/or aesthetically unacceptable. They can be placed onto natural drilled teeth or placed dental implants in order to close the gap between the teeth as a consequence of natural dental crown loss. If they are placed onto natural drilled teeth, a tooth impression is made and the crown is fabricated in the laboratory according to that impression.
Fabrication of one crown takes a few days, and the patient gets a temporary crown in that period. After the crown is finished it is cemented onto the prepared tooth, which ensures a completely natural appearance of the tooth. All our dental crowns are fabricated in one of the best dental laboratories in the country, which guarantees the best quality and precision. We fabricate crowns out of best materials, and divide them in the following groups:
- non metal crowns or all ceramic crowns– zirconia and E.max
- metal-ceramic crowns– metal base coated with ceramics
Metal Ceramics Crown
With the development of dental medicine and dental materials, metal ceramic crowns have replaced total metal crowns. The metal ceramic crown consists of a metal base (cobalt – chrome – molybdenum, nickel – titanium, gold) fused with ceramic in special laboratory conditions. This enables the crown to assume the shape of a tooth, with very good aesthetic results. Due to the resistance of the metal base and the ceramic aesthetics, metal ceramic crowns and bridges are used in both lateral and frontal regions.
Titanium Ceramics Crown
The titanium is classified as hypoallergenic material. Titanium Alloy has been used for decades in both medical joint replacement & dental implant technology. With PFT (Porcelain Fused to Titanium) Crowns and Bridges, including implants, we can give you the esthetics of a high noble metal. Titanium is X-Ray radiolucent, allowing you to clearly see the pulp chamber under a cemented restoration without removing the fixed prosthesis. “Clearly”, this cost and time-saving feature will be appreciated by both us and the patient! Titanium also exhibits very low thermal conductivity, which prevents irritation to the pulp due to high/low temperatures in the patient’s mouth.
Every crown is custom milled, not cast (which may change the molecular structure) at our laboratory using the latest CAD/CAM technology. The strength and rigidity of titanium are comparable to those of other noble or high noble alloys commonly used in dentistry.
Zirconium-Oxide Ceramics
Zirconium is a relatively new material in dental medicine and certainly the biggest discovery concerning the metal ceramic crowns. Zirconium, as a material, is biocompatible, it does not react to surrounding tissues, it is a weak heat and electricity conductor that minimizes teeth oversensitivity and it is an unfavorable base for plaque build-up, which greatly improves oral hygiene care and slows down gingival recession. Along with the mentioned advantages, zirconium is a material strong enough to bear chewing forces of the lateral region without getting fractured, and does not have a metal base. The aesthetic characteristics are exceptional and give technicians the possibility to model a crown that is difficult to distinguish from a natural tooth.
Full Zirconia Crowns
Full Contour Zirconia is exactly what it says, a crown made to full contour of solid zirconia. Although much less esthetic than e.max, it is far stronger (800-900mpa) and therefore well suited to withstand severe parafunctional activity. With these virtually unbreakable crowns we can offer our patients the strength to withstand severe bruxing and avoid metal restorations. These crowns can only be made by CAD/CAM. They are milled from a block of “green” zirconia, infiltrated with a special coloring liquid and then sintered at 1500 C in a special oven. They are then customized with paint-on shades, polished, and then covered with a layer of glaze for a final shine.
Metal-Free Ceramics (press)
It is used exclusively in the frontal region in order to achieve high tooth aesthetics in the shape of a crown or with minimally invasive facings technique (veneers). Since there is no base that gives it firmness and strength it is not suitable for lateral regions because of the strong chewing forces.
IPS Empress Ceramics (leucite reinforced glass-ceramics)
Was first used more than 20 years ago. It belongs to a group of leucite reinforced glass-ceramics, and when it came out, it was best known for its ability to mimic natural tooth characteristics (color, warmth) and superior esthetics. Its drawback was that it could not be processed in CAD-CAM systems (less precise) and had a mild flexural strength of 138MPa to 160MPa, depending on the generation. This limited its use to the front teeth and only in patients who generally had proper occlusion. When used outside its limited indications, the dentist and patient risked the possibility of a crown fracture.
IPS Emax Ceramics (lithium disilicate glass-ceramic)
The search for esthetic restorations continuously rises and today’s patients are no longer satisfied just with the fact that their teeth look normal, but demand a completely natural appearance (shape, color, warmth), especially in the “smile zone”. Emax ceramics is a solution for the modern patient. To define it, we would say, that, in some way, it is the successor to the older Empress ceramics, but (in fact) it is in a class of its own.
Emax ceramics has all the esthetic characteristics of the older Empress system but unlike it, it has a much higher flexural strength of 400-450MPa! Crowns made of Emax ceramics can be used to restore any tooth in the oral cavity.
Another advantage of Emax ceramics is the technique by which it is made. It can be fabricated with press technology and CAD / CAM technology (computerized technology) which in addition to its exemplary aesthetics offers superior precision of a few microns!
All these features give it a wide indication of use and, for that reason, we use it as the material of choice for all esthetic procedures.
Dental Bridges
Dental bridges replace one or more lost teeth. As their name suggests, dental bridges connect interrupted teeth rows into one whole. The bridge consists of 2 or more crowns placed on existing drilled teeth that serve as anchors.
Bridge anchors can be natural teeth or placed dental implants. Beside aesthetic, the bridge also has its health function, since it prevents recession of the gums and collapsing of the neighboring teeth. Preparation of the tooth for a bridge is similar to the preparation for a single crown.
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