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Zirconia Implants: Is There a Future?

  • Dental Restorative Materials (M Özcan, Section Editor)
  • Published:
Current Oral Health Reports Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose of Review

This review is making an overview of the behavior of the zirconia-toughened ceramic (ZTC) intended for use in the next generation of dental implants replacing zirconia (yttria-stabilized zirconia [Y-TZP]) currently in use.

Recent Findings

The new ZTCs are joining improved strength and toughness to the excellent biological behavior of TZP currently used worldwide for metal-free dental implants.

Summary

Most of the Y-TZP dental implants currently in use are one-piece designs. New two-piece designs are now in the market. This design results very demanding because of the mechanical behavior of the ceramic and poses some limitations in implant diameter. Thanks to the improved strength and toughness, the new ZTCs will allow the increase in the reliability of the present implant design and the production of implants with diameter smaller than the first generation ones.

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Abbreviations

ZTA:

Zirconia-toughened alumina

ATZ:

Alumina-toughened zirconia

SHA:

Strontium hexaluminate

TZP:

Tetragonal zirconia polycrystal

ZTC:

Zirconia-toughened ceramic

BIC:

Bone-implant contact

LTD:

Low-temperature degradation

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  1. National Research Council, Institute for the Science and Technology of Ceramics, Faenza, Italy

    Corrado Piconi & Simone Sprio

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  1. Corrado Piconi
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Conflict of Interest

Corrado Piconi reports consultancy work for Medical Device Division, CeramTec GmbH, Plochingen, Germany. Simone Sprio declares no conflict of interest.

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This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by any of the authors.

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This article is part of the Topical Collection on Dental Restorative Materials

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Piconi, C., Sprio, S. Zirconia Implants: Is There a Future?. Curr Oral Health Rep 5, 186–193 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40496-018-0187-x

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