Should I use gold or ceramic for my final dental restoration?
It used to be gold was really the “gold standard”. It fit well in the mouth and it was a conservative preparation as well. That Being said the Gold Restoration was also durable. Today in 2016, we have materials ..that in my clinical opinion are much better than gold. One of the most well known by clinicians and dental practices is zirconia dioxide restorations. At Keating Dental Lab it’s called the KDZ Bruxer® for the back of the mouth and the KDZ Bruxer® Esthetic in the front of the mouth.
Watch and Learn more about this topic in this remarkable 4K Ultra HD Video Tutorial for clinicians and dental practices by Dr. David Hornbrook.
Video Tutorial Transcript:
Hello, I’m Dr. David Hornbrook, the clinical director of Education & Technology here at Keating Dental Lab in Irvine, California. I want today to discuss a topic that is often asked by both our patients as well as doctors that utilize Keating Dental Lab. The question is gold or ceramic for a final restoration? It used to be gold was really the gold standard. It fit well, it was a conservative preparation, and it was durable. Today we have materials that in my opinion are better than gold. One of them is zirconia dioxide. At Keating Dental Lab it’s called the KDZ Bruxer for the back of the mouth and the KDZ Bruxer Esthetic in the front of the mouth.
The advantages of the Bruxer over gold, one is cost. The most expensive restoration that we fabricate in our dental laboratory is a gold crown, which means our patient is going to have to pay more for that crown. Number one is cost. Second is conservation of tooth structure and durability. The nice thing about the new zirconia, it’s basically a gold-like prep. It used to be when we had metal and we overlaid it with ceramic or some of the weaker ceramics, we didn’t have a very aggressive prep. Sometimes it was a millimeter and a half, even two millimeters, where gold was .5 to a millimeter. The new Bruxer zirconia, we can have occlusal clearance of only .5 millimeters. That’s a gold-like prep.
Axial reduction, how much do we remove from the sides of the teeth and interproximally? .5 millimeters. We could have supragingival margins because of the translucency. This material is stronger than any porcelain we’ve ever placed on a porcelain-fused-to-metal crown. We have conservation of tooth structure, durability, and if we go back to cost, one of the most affordable restorations that we offer here at Keating is our Bruxer, which offers huge benefits for our patients. We look at esthetics, most of our patients at one time maybe they didn’t mind showing a gold crown. Now they’re having gold replaced because they want tooth colored restorations. Now we can place a very durable restoration, whether it be in the front or the back of the mouth, that is affordable, conservative, and esthetic. I hope that clears up some of the misconceptions on gold versus ceramic.
