New Material Advancement for CAD CAM Anterior Crowns

I was in Germany for technology preview with a few companies last week. I was introduced to some great new products. I will likely write a few blogs in the coming weeks about much of what I saw there. So keep following the new blogs over the next few weeks for more on what’s new for innovative digital technologies in our industry.

An interesting development, the Priticrown, by Pritidenta of Germany, has been introduced in Europe and is currently coming to the US market. The Priticrown is a new milling block for single units that is near net shape, multi layered ceramic milling blank.

When looking at these near net shaped blocks it’s immediately easy to see the block comes in the shape of the tooth you need to restore. As a result, when milling, there is a significant time savings as you no longer need all the grinding to get the rough shape required for final contour. This not only saves mill time, it also reduces tool wear and related cost of each. It’s my understanding, it reduces mill time by about 30%.

The material used for Priticrown preforms is a layered Vita Mark II. This particular ceramic has over 20M units in the mouth with documented long term studies that indicate greater than 95% success rate after ten years. The material utilizes an etch and bonding procedure for best results.  Each preform is uniquely layered with a body and enamel shades for optimal esthetics. In fact, Priticrown is likely the most esthetic milling material available. Making it a best in class choice for automated anterior restorations.

The workflow is really quite simple; scan, CAD, and mill. For CAD one can use either 3Shape, Exocad or Dental Wings, as each company now has the preform libraries in the related software. When designing, there are a couple of small changes needed to insure the design fits inside the block. The ceramic material is easily ground on and can be polished or glazed. Polishing can be easily achieved using most porcelain polishing systems and provides a lifelike final luster.

Left: Priticrown pre-form milling blank
Center: Milled Priticrown
Right: Final crown, polished and ready for insertion



Thanks for reading,

Bob Cohen, CDT