3M Chairside Zirconia: Balancing Strength, Esthetics, and Simplicity
Michael Snider, DMD, who practices in Greenwood, SC, discusses the evolution of CAD/CAM dentistry, and how products like 3M Chairside Zirconia and the company’s cementation solutions support improved restorative outcomes and streamlined, single-visit workflows
Given the right tools, the modern clinician can not only design and fabricate durable restorations that closely mimic natural teeth, but also deliver them to patients with unprecedented ease and efficiency. And, today’s dental patients are taking note, according to Dr. Michael Snider: “At this point, our patients expect us to be doing things digitally and to provide same-day dentistry.” Innovations in CAD/CAM technology and materials like 3M Chairside Zirconia make this revolution possible, allowing dentists like Dr. Snider to meet—and even exceed—patient expectations.
Zirconia Evolved
Since beginning his “CEREC journey” in 2009, Dr. Snider has become a respected expert and educator on digital dentistry. Along the way, he’s also witnessed CAD/CAM technology flourish firsthand, with each evolution giving way to new clinical possibilities. One such revelation arrived several years ago, following the release of Dentsply Sirona’s CEREC SpeedFire high-temperature sintering furnace. This system enabled chairside fabrication of monolithic restorations made with full-contour zirconia, something formerly limited to the dental laboratory.
“Most doctors go to zirconia looking for strength,” Dr. Snider explains, “but no one wants to deliver a restoration that they’re not proud to see.” Unfortunately, early generations of zirconia had significant shortcomings: opaque, or 3Y zirconia, “had the benefit of being strong,” Dr. Snider says, “but it wasn’t where we wanted it to be from an esthetic standpoint.” When “highesthetic” 5Y zirconia materials began to hit the market, they too left more to be desired. “Some are phenomenal materials that look great, but the compressive strength isn’t much different than what I’d get with my glass ceramics—I was giving up a little bit of esthetics to get this jump to 700 or so megapascals,” he says. Thankfully, Dr. Snider soon found an ideal solution—one that balanced his functional needs and esthetic preferences—in 3M Chairside Zirconia.
“To me, 3M Chairside Zirconia is a perfect mesh between the strength that opaque zirconia is known for and the translucency of ‘high esthetic’ zirconia.”
- Michael Snider, DMD
A Perfect Merging of Strength and Esthetics
3M Chairside Zirconia delivers an impressive flexural strength of 1000 MPa (fast fired) but maintains realistic, tooth-like esthetics. As a result, Dr. Snider says the 4Y material “fits a sweet spot” for dentists. “To me, 3M Chairside Zirconia is a perfect mesh between the strength that opaque zirconia is known for and the translucency of ‘high esthetic’ zirconia.” Indicated for single-unit crowns up to 3-unit bridges, 3M Chairside Zirconia has become a go-to for Dr. Snider in posterior molar and pre-molar cases. He calls it “a beautiful material” with translucency comparable to some glass ceramics, adding praise for its ease of fabrication and optimal restorative result. “The way it mills, the margins are super clean, there’s no chipping like we see with glass ceramics, and, because of the way zirconia is manufactured, it’s a more intimate-fitting restoration—it’s a really nice product.”
One Bond, One Cement, Many Applications
Due to its remarkable strength and less-invasive prep requirements, 3M Chairside Zirconia allows for conventional cementation, a technique many clinicians prefer for its relative simplicity and efficiency. 3M further simplifies cementation with their new 3M RelyX Universal Resin Cement, a versatile product that can be leveraged as a standalone or self-adhesive cement. Dr. Snider tells us that, with “a nice prep that offers good mechanical retention,” he can “just load RelyX Universal Resin Cement into the crown, seat it, cure it, clean it up, and go.”
When mechanical retention poses a challenge, 3M RelyX Universal Resin Cement can also be paired with 3M Scotchbond Universal Plus Adhesive. Dr. Snider relies on this duo for streamlined, predictable bonding across a range of clinical situations. “I try to keep my chemistries and my workflows as simple as possible,” Dr. Snider says, “The system of Scotchbond Universal Plus Adhesive and RelyX Universal Resin Cement is pretty unique because I can use it for both direct and indirect bonding procedures. I use that bond when I’m doing a direct composite and when I’m seating an inlay or onlay or a crown. I can seat zirconia, lithium disilicate, or other glass ceramics—it’s not limited to one specific material.”
With “one bond, one cement, that will fit all those different applications,” products like 3M RelyX Universal Resin Cement and 3M Scotchbond Universal Plus Adhesive, along with 3M Chairside Zirconia, have helped Dr. Snider keep clinical complexity to a minimum while providing same-day restorations both he and his patients can take pride in.
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