Zirconia Dental Materials Market

Zirconia materials have been used in dental clinics for more than 20 years. Because of their very good mechanical properties, they have gradually become the mainstream ceramic materials for oral restoration in the world. In recent years, with the change of the national dental consumption concept, the improvement of consumption capacity, the aging population and the continuous improvement of the configuration of dental hospitals, the domestic market for dental restoration materials has ushered in rapid development. The market space has also been further expanded.

Zirconia is the best material in the field of dental restoration

Tooth loss is a common disease of the oral cavity . Common causes of tooth loss include: 1) early dental caries or accidents, 2) teeth are compressed and cannot grow gums (commonly known as wisdom teeth). The consequences of tooth loss are not only reduced chewing efficiency, but also usually accompanied by depression, aging face, slurred pronunciation, etc., which seriously reduces the quality of life.

Removable dentures, fixed dentures and dental implants are the conventional restoration methods . A person has two sets of natural teeth, deciduous teeth and permanent teeth. After adulthood, if the permanent teeth fall out due to oral diseases such as dental caries and periodontitis, there will be no natural teeth to replace them. Dentures can only be used to restore them.

Removable dentures , that is, use the clasps and rests placed on the remaining teeth to stabilize the dentures, and bear the chewing force through the remaining teeth and gums in the mouth. The advantage is that it is cheap, easy to make, and less tooth tissue is removed. The disadvantage is that the foreign body sensation is obvious and the chewing efficiency is low. Long-term use will accelerate the atrophy of the alveolar bone.

Fixed dentures , that is, like "bridges" to put dentures on the healthy teeth that are worn down on both sides of the missing teeth. The advantage is that it does not need to be removed frequently for cleaning, the chewing function is strong, and there is no obvious foreign body sensation. The disadvantage is that it has high requirements for the remaining adjacent teeth and is only suitable for a small number of missing teeth.

Dental implant, that is, a method of tooth restoration based on the lower structure implanted in bone tissue to support and retain the upper tooth restoration. It has the advantages of not damaging normal teeth, chewing function similar to natural teeth, comfortable and beautiful, and long service life. Long, the disadvantage is that the requirements for implant surgery are relatively high, and the cost of dental implants is high.

Zirconia has excellent mechanical properties, biocompatibility and aesthetic effects, and is regarded as the best crown material for fixed dentures and implants . Since the development of oral restoration, metal has been the earliest and most widely used material in oral clinical restoration. However, long-term clinical observations have found that metal dentures are difficult to meet the aesthetic restoration requirements of patients, especially for patients with thin anterior gums. In recent years, ceramic materials have gradually replaced metals as mainstream repair materials due to their stable chemical properties and good biocompatibility. Compared with other ceramic materials, zirconia has good toughness, corrosion resistance, dilution resistance, and high temperature resistance. It is recognized as the ideal choice of dental restoration material in clinic.

From the perspective of clinical application, the restoration effect of zirconia all-ceramic crown is the best. Among fixed restorations and implant crowns, the most important crown materials are metal full crowns, porcelain fused to metal crowns and all-ceramic crowns. All-ceramic teeth have obvious advantages in terms of aesthetics, safety, and digital cutting, and are one of the important trends in fixed dental restorations. All-ceramic crowns are made of zirconia and glass ceramics. Zirconia all-ceramic crowns are more expensive, but the color is closer to real teeth and less abrasive to the teeth.

The semipermeability of zirconia is the key to the application, and the quality and size of the powder are the most important. Full zirconia restorations have good physical and mechanical properties and a relatively simple manufacturing process, while avoiding the risk of porcelain collapse caused by poor bonding of traditional ceramic bottom crowns and veneering porcelain, so they are increasingly widely used in clinical practice. In the restoration of dentures, consistent light transmittance can make dentures reproduce the characteristics of natural teeth. Therefore, light transmittance is the key to the success of all-ceramic denture restoration. Powder quality control and crystal size control are the main means to improve light transmittance one.

At present, zirconia ceramic materials are divided into four generations . The first generation of white zirconia is gradually withdrawn from clinical practice due to poor light transmission. Transparent zirconia can be used in the production of full zirconia crown and bridge restorations for anterior teeth, and the fourth-generation ultra-transparent zirconia is mostly used for the production of full zirconia single crowns and veneers for anterior teeth due to its low strength.

In addition to its application in dental crowns, zirconia has been shown to be used in the manufacture of implants and abutments for dental implants . Dental implants consist of implants, abutments and crowns. The implant is the part embedded in the gum, which is closely integrated with its own alveolar bone and plays the role of the root of the tooth. The entire implant is based on the implant. The abutment, which is the exposed part of the alveolar bone, connects with the implant and is detachable to provide the wearing position for the restoration crown. The restoration crown, nested outside the abutment, is the outermost structure of the entire dental implant, and its shape is the same as the teeth growing in our mouth.

Zirconia materials have been widely used in the manufacture of dental crowns, and are still being explored in the application of implants and abutments. Straumann in Switzerland successfully implanted zirconia implants in the mouth of a patient in 2014, and arranged for follow-up examinations for the patients 6 months and 1 year after the implantation. From the results of the two follow-up visits, the all-ceramic crown on the implant was functioning normally, and no complications were found in the two visits. It can be seen from the apical X-ray film 1 year after implant placement that the osseointegration around the implant is normal, and the bone level near the border of the rough implant surface remains stable, and the patient's treatment effect on its function and aesthetics is very good. satisfy. However, at present, traditional implants and abutments are still titanium alloys, and zirconia implants are still far from being widely used, and clear test standards and more clinical data are needed.