How to adjust & polish zirconia crowns
With the recent jump in dentists switching to various zirconia types for their crown & bridge, we’ve had an increase in queries on the best practice for prepping, adjustment, etc…
To make it as easy as possible for our clients to work with zirconia, our technicians have developed the Monolith Adjustment Bur Kit with an RRP of £149.95. The kit comes with instructions for use, works with all types of zirconia and contains two adjustment burs, two pre-polishers and two mirror-finish polishers. There is also a straight parallel bur to be used in the event a restoration needs to be removed.
How to prep zirconia crowns
We suggest you use the following BruxZir prep guide for zirconia restorations. Handily, you’ll also see it featured on the back of our dockets.
How to adjust zirconia crowns
Solid zirconia is easy to adjust and polish with the Monolith Adjustment Kit so long as you follow these steps:
- Use lots of water and air with the fine grit diamond burs to reduce the build-up of heat.
- Using the fine grit adjustment burs, use intermittent light pressure on and off the zirconia. This reduces the risk of microfractures which could compromise the restoration.
- The football shaped bur is ideal for adjusting occlusion and recontouring anatomy.
- Use the tapered bur for adjusting interproximal contacts.
How to polish zirconia after adjustment
After any adjustment takes place, the adjusted area must be polished. Unpolished zirconia is highly abrasive and will rapidly wear opposing natural dentition.
- Starting with the brick-red polishers, use light to medium pressure with no water as a pre-polish to remove any coarse bur marks left after adjustments.
- Finally, use the green polishers to achieve a high lustre mirror finish.
Differences between zirconia types
If you are adjusting BruxZir or Monolith, note that these materials usually feature surface staining so please be aware of this when adjusting aesthetic areas. UniZirc does not use surface staining as the shading/translucency is inherent within the crown and will be present throughout the material.
Get in touch with our team
If you have a query we didn’t cover, email us on [email protected] or call on 01474 320 076. Our lines are open from 9am-12noon Monday to Friday, we’re looking forward to hearing from you.