CEREC Zirconia: Valued material can now be used chairside

CEREC now provides a completely new process to dental practices: by combining the new CEREC SpeedFire furnace and CEREC Zirconia material, dentists can now deliver full contour crowns and small bridges made of the full-strength high-quality zirconium oxide in their own practice while the patient waits.

High strength, short manufacturing process

The greatest benefit of CEREC Zirconia is the high flexural strength of the material. It is suitable for individual crowns as well as small bridges and can be processed in thin wall thicknesses. Since these restorations are manufactured in monolithic form, there is no risk of chipping. Another benefit for dentists is that zirconium oxide can be cemented conventionally.

CEREC Zirconia is a pre-shaded translucent zirconium oxide avail-able in 10 shades on the basis of the VITA Classic Shade Guide®. The material is milled in an enlarged form and then densely sintered to its final size in the new sintering furnace CEREC Speed-Fire. The over-sized milling facilitates a new level of milling accuracy leading to superb, precisely fitting restorations. The sintering process takes just 10-15 minutes for crowns and 25 minutes for bridges. The subsequent glaze firing gives the restoration a high gloss finish.

The short process to produce CEREC Zirconia restorations is both convenient and economical. With this market launch, all CEREC milling/grinding units now provide wet and dry milling. Dry milling reduces the overall processing time for zirconia and, combined with the world's fastest sintering cycles, enables the chairside procedure.

The workflow is easy to learn since the CEREC Software 4.4.1 guides the dentist through the entire process, and even sends the sintering and glazing information to the furnace. No programming of the furnace is required – it is all handled automatically by the software. A high-performance material and a specially tailored workflow ensure a simple process and high-quality treatment.

CEREC meets patients' needs

Eighty three percent of patients in a recent survey said they prefer single visit dentistry to traditional treatment. The majority said they would even be willing to pay more for single visit dentistry. Two thirds indicated they'd be happy to travel further than they currently do, in order to receive treatment in one session. Another two thirds said they would even be prepared to change their dentist. The advantages of single visit dentistry are obvious: Patients avoid impression material, receive fewer anesthetics and don't need a temporary. Reducing the number of visits, injections and making the overall prosthetic procedure more comfortable influences patients to opt for treatment with CEREC.

In addition to CEREC Zirconia, many other high-performance materials can be processed with CEREC. The range of materials with CEREC also expands clinical indications since the dentist can easily select the material suited for each indication.

Investment for a successful future

There have always been good reasons to start using digital dentistry with CEREC. CEREC Zirconia completes the range of indications for chairside application for nearly every situation, thus giving dentists greater choice and allowing them to increase the value of their practice's offering.

It is obvious that advanced technologies in automobiles, computers and smartphones make our daily lives easier. CEREC is also a technology that further develops a dental practice and can make it well positioned for the future. Especially now, as the system is high-ly flexible, it enables dentists to expand their offering in implant dentistry and orthodontics.

About Sirona

Sirona is the global market and technology leader in the dental industry and has been a worldwide partner for dealers, dental practices, clinics and dental laboratories for more than 130 years. Sirona develops and produces the complete spectrum of dental equipment products, including CAD/CAM systems for computer-assisted ceramic restorations (CEREC), digital imaging systems for intraoral and panoramic X-rays and cone beam computed tomography (3D), treatment centers, instruments, and hygiene devices. Sirona's largest development and production site is in Bensheim, Germany. The company has more than 3,500 employees around the world and has been listed on the NASDAQ since 2006 (symbol: SIRO).