Alloys: A decisive touch more attractive at the International Dental Show (IDS) 2019

The selection of materials for prosthetics has increased considerably over the past twenty years. Alloys still play an important role here. Their composition as well as the production and processing methods are further developed at a high scientific and technical level - which is of course a main focus of the International Dental Show (IDS).

Alloys free of precious metals are used in the prosthetics, orthodontics and implantology and have thus adopted a strong market position. The advantages lie above all in their material attributes, the processing versatility and comparably low costs. For the production methods, in addition to the classic precious metal-free casting process, the user can also opt between milling porous and dense blanks and the laser-supported selective fusing of powder material. Innovative digital tools facilitate to a large degree the completion of major model casting work today.

Titanium also has a special standing under the precious metal-free restorative treatment of patients. Specially assembled or individually milled abutments, crowns and bridges made of this material especially for implanting work represent a consistent minimisation of the variety of materials used inside the mouth, because the majority of artificial dental roots are also made out of titanium. People seeking information on this theme at IDS, will also find a row of possible answers to the question of where can I find a reliable adhesive bond.

Classic precious metal alloys with a high content of gold rely on their strengths in special fields of application, such as for example large-spanning constructions using combined techniques, generally for tangential preparations and especially for secondary crowns (i.e. telescopic technique) - or also for certain recognised methods of gnathological occlusal surface (i.e. bio-mechanical occlusion the Michael Heinz Polz way). As ductile materials they prove to be extremely tolerant against small discrepancies between the diagnotically determined movements of the masticatory apparatus and its actual dynamics in the individual case of the patient after prosthetic treatment.

Dentist and dental technicians encounter a strongly differentiated offer at IDS: Classic casting alloys, ceramic bonded alloys, copper and/or palladium-free bio alloys, more favourably priced gold-reduced alloys, ultra-pure electroforming gold. The processing can today, depending on the alloy option, take place using the casting process or partly digitally-supported (i.e. CAD/CAM production of PMMA casted substructures) or by milling the restoration out of a gold blank.

For an aesthetic crown, substructure material specific veneering ceramics and plastics that are tailor-made in their design options as well as in their systematics and didactics can be found at the exhibition halls of IDS.

"Based on many discussions and my own experiences, I know how the work with metals and metal ceramics has been perfected over the decades and how gladly dentists and dental technicians work with representatives of this material class," said Mark Stephan Pace, Chairman of the VDDI (Association of the German Dental Manufacturers e.V.). "It is all the more interesting for me then when in this field of mature and presumably completely matured products at IDS one or two innovation stand out and make the use of the respective material even more attractive - for some of the visitors to the decisive degree."

IDS (International Dental Show) takes place in Cologne every two years and is organised by the GFDI Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Dental-Industrie mbH, the commercial enterprise of the Association of German Dental Manufacturers (VDDI) and is staged by Koelnmesse GmbH, Cologne.