Contemporary Dental Ceramics

Dental ceramics were increasingly introduced to restorative dentistry at the beginning of the XX century as porcelain jacket crowns. However, their limited use in clinical practice was mainly associated to the mechanical shortcomings. In the early sixties porcelain-fused to-metal restorations were developed and for years have represented the “gold standard”, thanks to their good mechanical properties and to somewhat satisfactory esthetics. In the last thirty years, the growing demand for highly esthetic restorations has led to development of new all-ceramic materials and techniques. All-ceramic restorations combine esthetic veneering porcelains (consisting of a glass and a crystalline phase of fluoroapatite, aluminum oxide, or leucite) with strong ceramic cores, mainly made of lithium-disilicate, aluminum-oxide or zirconium-oxide. The most common complication is fracture that can initiate from several different sites on the surface, at interfaces, or within the material. While conventional methods of ceramic fabrication usually contain internal porosity, CAD/CAM technology ensures almost no internal defects. Such improvements in ceramic processing have allowed better structural reliability and greatly contributed to the success of all-ceramic systems. The aim of this study was to provide an overview on development of ceramic systems used in dentistry, their processing, including computer-aided design and computer-aided (CAD/CAM) technology, applications and future perspectives in this field

Near Net Shape Manufacturing of Dental Implants Using Additive Processes

Dental implantation was introduced as a restorative procedure to reinstate the teeth functions and put the patient in normal contour, comfort, speech and health. Dental implants have been used over the centuries and the production techniques have been developed over the years. One of the advanced technologies is additive manufacturing (AM) which enables high degree of freedom ability to produce complex shaped and customized parts similar to human teeth. AM facilitates the production of complex geometric structure without the need of preparing expensive tools, hence it is more cost effective and time saving process. The current chapter provides an overview of AM as a promising technology for near net shape production of dental in preparing customised dental implants. The chapter also explore the anatomy and mechanical properties of human teeth together with the requirements for the design of teeth implants. The chapter survey the current AM technologies used for dental implant, clinical implications and highlights the future trend of AM in the development of near net shaped dental implants