Dentsply Sirona Launching New Esthetic, High-Strength Zirconia CAD/CAM Block this Week in Vegas

Described as the latest step in helping dentists achieve their digital dentistry clinical and practice goals, Dentsply Sirona has announced the launch of a truly esthetic, high-strength zirconia CAD/CAM block in a bold new partnership with VITA Zahnfabrik. CEREC MTL Zirconia will launch at DS World in Las Vegas this week and brings together a high level of esthetics and ease of processing alongside the strength familiar with zirconium oxide in a multilayer graduated zirconium oxide block.

The new material will be available from September 2021. Dentsply Sirona has helped shape the world of digital dentistry with innovation across multiple imaging and software platforms, specifically, in the CEREC workflow where patients require a restoration. In these scenarios, dentists what to know which material fits best in terms of strength, esthetics, and processing simplicity. Until now, material selection has been somewhat limited, particularly in delivering across all 3 of these vital performance areas.

Less than 1 year ago Dentsply Sirona began to shift the conversation from compromise to delivering on what is required with the release of CEREC Tessera. CEREC MTL Zirconia continues this conversation, particularly for posterior restorations where zirconia blocks have been critical to success.

CEREC MTL Zirconia is a zirconium oxide enriched with yttrium oxide that leaves virtually nothing to be desired. A key factor in the material developed and produced by VITA Zahnfabrik is the special color technology consisting of a multilayer color gradient. This MTL (multi transitional layer) technology, in combination with high translucency, is designed to result in very natural esthetics without compromising on strength. This property turns the material into genuine innovation and an optimal choice for bridges and crowns as well as for inlays, onlays, and veneers.

While this color transition visibly improves the esthetics, the 3-point flexural strength of more than 850 MPa helps ensure very high strength. This enables minimally invasive crown preparation with a wall thickness as low as 0.6 mm. This strength and wall thickness allows for ideal anatomically designed posterior restorations and gives clinicians more flexibility in the CEREC workflow.

Chairside Supply with Simple, Fast Workflow
And one of the best parts, according to the manufacturer, is fast and easy processing. After scanning with CEREC Primescan, which is now twice as fast with the upgrade to CEREC SW 5.2, and creating a finished restoration in 5 clicks, a crown made of CEREC MTL Zirconia can be milled out in as little as 5 minutes in the Super Fast mode of CEREC Primemill. Subsequent sintering in CEREC SpeedFire takes around 20 minutes, and the optional glaze firing can be completed after just 9 minutes. With conventional cementation as the finishing step, this zirconia may become the CAD/CAM block of choice for posterior restorations.

The first users of CEREC MTL Zirconia expressed great satisfaction with the new material and praised above all the uncompromising path to impressive esthetics, according to Dentsply Sirona. "It is very rare for a material and workflow to come along that changes the way you practice. There are things that make you more efficient, but the advent of chairside esthetic zirconia has changed the way I do things in my office” reports Mike Skramstad, DDS, from Orono, Minnesota. “CEREC MTL is the pinnacle of what I am looking for in a chairside zirconia. High strength, esthetic, cementable, and low minimal thickness design not only make the execution of the restoration easy, but the efficiency, fit, and workflow has simply changed everything for me."

Comprehensive Materials Portfolio
Dentsply Sirona's block portfolio for CEREC restorations includes glass-ceramics (CEREC Tessera) as well as various zirconium oxide blocks (CEREC Zirconia+) and is now completed by a true multi-talent for restoring teeth in different regions of the mouth.

"With CEREC MTL Zirconia, we are rounding off our CAD/CAM block portfolio of glass-ceramic and zirconia blocks with an esthetic zirconium oxide," explains Mathias Kraus, Vice President Restorative Marketing/Single-Unit Crown at Dentsply Sirona. "In this way, the highest demands of patients in terms of strength and esthetics can be met simultaneously."

The new product is the result of a collaboration between VITA and Dentsply Sirona. "With this innovation, we have succeeded in ideally combining the requirements for maximum esthetics, ease of processing, and familiar strength," explains Bernd Schnakenberg, Head of Global Sales & Marketing at VITA. While VITA is the designer and producer of this new MTL zirconium oxide block, Dentsply Sirona with Degudent GmbH, Hanau, will be responsible for the exclusive global distribution.