At an art studio a few years ago, I tried to work with clay. Perhaps, I thought, I have a talent that I haven’t yet discovered.
Spoiler alert: I do not. Or if I do have a hidden talent, it’s certainly not in the world of sculpting. The result of this artistic endeavor, a blood-red paperweight/candleholder in the vague shape of a tree, is often the recipient of tilted heads and facial expressions that betray both bemusement and confusion.
It can’t be all my fault, I think; the material was thick, hard to shape and challenging to refine into the image I had in my head.
Perhaps one day there will be an art class that gives students a material as flexible as Zirlux Acetal to use. This millable solution of acetal resin for creating removables and partial frameworks is considered “dental super material.” The resin starts out thin and, when paired with design software, can be used to create a piece that looks and fits perfectly in the patient’s mouth. As you refine the piece, the material becomes thicker and more rigid for durability. The result is a piece that is stain, water and fatigue resistant—which patients will certainly appreciate.
Acetal resin offers you a lot of advantages over cast-metal fabricating. The newer material not only reduces the labor and cost involved with creating a removable, it also creates a finished product that because of the material’s flexibility, fits better in the mouth and is kinder to the patient’s surrounding teeth.
The possibilities for acetal resin continue to grow. According to a GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare survey, 18.5 million Americans wear partial dentures, and as baby boomers continue to age, that number is anticipated to climb. Add that to the number of patients who need long-term provisional restorations and bite appliances, and having acetal resin available becomes even more important. What’s more, the qualities of acetal resin make it ideal for custom smile-enhancement pieces, which for some practices and labs may not have been a product previously possible with current materials.
Zirlux Acetal is available in 98.5mm discs in shades A1, A2, A3.5, B1, and G2, which is a bleach shade as well as three thicknesses: 15mm, 20mm, and 25mm. To find out more, visit zirlux.com.