Can Zirconia Crowns Crack?
When reviewing your options for materials for your dental crown, one option to talk to the dentist about is zirconia. There are a few types of zirconia crowns to choose from and the dentist can suggest one based on your specific needs.
Full contour zirconia is used for people with the heaviest bites or people who grind their teeth. This is the strongest crown that can tolerate aggressive chewing and bruxism without damage.
Full contour all translucent zirconia is ideal for an area of your mouth that is highly visible but does not engage in regular and repeated serious biting and grinding.
Porcelain fused to zirconia combines the advantages of porcelain with zirconia. The zirconia base of the crown provides the strength and durability of zirconia. The porcelain surface of the dental crown is layered and then baked in place to give the dental crown the most natural looking finish.
Each one of these zirconia crowns has its own resistance to wear and tear and the crown’s lifespan can be affected by where the replacement tooth is located in your mouth.
Zirconia dental crown benefits
Dentists are looking to zirconia for dental crowns more and more often due to the advantages of this material as compared to traditional materials.
1. Longevity
One study showed that compared to metal-based crowns, zirconia-based crowns remained intact as well as those over a five year period. When crowns are made more monolithic zirconia, they are even more durable than other zirconia crowns.
2. Strength
When you think about the molars in the back of your mouth, you already know how much you rely on them for forceful biting and chewing. If one of those teeth needs a dental crown, then zirconia is strong enough to use in that instance. Additionally, zirconia is so strong that the crown itself can be made thinner as compared to other materials. If the crown does not need as much room in your mouth to fit properly, the dentist will not need to remove as much of the tooth as they would for a different material.
3. Biocompatibility
Zirconia is a material that is very unlikely to provoke an allergic reaction or immune response when placed in your mouth. Studies go on to find that zirconia dental crowns caused a limited amount of cytotoxicity. Medical professionals are using zirconia in implant procedures in place of titanium.
4. Same Day Service
If the dentist offers Chairside Economical Restoration of Esthetic Ceramics, or CEREC, the dentist can design, produce, and place your new zirconia dental crown in one visit. This technology eliminates the need for a dental lab by replacing it with a computer aided design and computer aided manufacturing process. The crown can be extracted from a zirconia block, but be sure to ask the dentist about their in-office options.
How Long Do Zirconia Crowns Last?
Because zirconia is new in its applications for dentistry, there is not as much information about the average lifespan. It is estimated to be 20 years, but it does depend on your daily care and maintenance of your oral health.