Finesse All-Ceramic Adds to MicroDental Laboratories’ Line-up

Today’s aesthetic-minded patients have a variety of options available to them to increase the beauty of their smiles. As those choices continue to expand, so too must laboratory offerings to continually meet those discriminating demands. With that in mind, MicroDental Laboratories has recently added Finesse® All-Ceramic from Dentsply Ceramco to their line of products.

Unlike most all-ceramic systems, Finesse All-Ceramic consists of low-fusing porcelain overlaying a low-fusing, translucent, all-ceramic substructure. The pressed ceramic ingot or core, is engineered with the coefficient of thermal expansion to thermally and aesthetically match the Finesse low-fusing porcelain for a beautiful restoration. This aspect allows for high polishability…so much so that reglazing is not necessary as a beautiful luster is easily achieved chairside. The core was scientifically set higher than that of the porcelain to maximize crown strength, improve crack resistance, and create an increased compression in the porcelain. This phenomenon also creates an ideal bond between the porcelain and core material without the need for a wash layer.

Comprised of 8-10% leucite, Finesse All-Ceramic is designed to maximize its fewer leucite crystals at a lower firing temperature to improve wear characteristics. In fact, five-year recall studies* have shown significantly less wear on the opposing dentition when compared to conventional porcelains. Even though gentle on the opposing, this material exhibits a flexural strength of 125MPa for reliable intraoral strength.

Finesse All-Ceramic was also designed to fluoresce similar to natural dentition. Each aspect of this system, from the core material to the final glaze, is designed to emit a natural fluorescence in any lighting conditions the smile is exposed to, regardless of restorative thickness. What this translates to is a lifelike effect that permeates throughout the tooth structure instead of a flat, dull look that can sometimes happen in certain lighting situations.

In addition to fluorescence, this material also exudes an amazing opalescence, thanks in part to its unique glass formulation. A special glass was developed to scatter and reflect blue-violet light while allowing the longer red-orange wavelengths to diffuse into the porcelain. Because of this, the addition of pigmentation to achieve opalescence is not necessary as it is inherent to the glass properties of the restoration. MicroDental’s technicians also utilized Dentsply’s mamelon and enamel shade fans, which have small chips of actual porcelain for custom shading. This not only offers your practice more choices, but increases the technicians’ ability to be truly creative.

Fig. 1

Fig. 2

Adding to this feature is Dentsply’s Color Communication System™. Each element that makes up a FAC restoration is color correlated to emit the proper hue, chroma, value, and translucency, increasing the overall vitality and depth of the restoration. This system allows both MicroDental ceramists and the clinician to achieve accurate shade matching through the Vita® system. In addition to this wide range of shades, it also applies to the eight white bleach shades found in the Illuminé™ system.

This material was engineered with the cutback technique in mind. The incisal translucence can be layered in rather than relying on external staining to achieve the desired amount of translucency (Fig. 1). As this is a primary element in MicroDental’s pressed ceramic fabrication process, combining the cutback method with the internal shade staining of the core further characterizes and modifies the shade for an incredible look. This allows control over the intrinsic color so the overall translucency will appear exactly the same no matter what the shade of the underlying tooth structure.

Indicated for full-coverage crowns, veneers, and inlays/onlays, Finesse All-Ceramic can be bonded using any enamel-dentin adhesive system. As MicroDental is renowned for its all-ceramic capabilities and innovative fabricative techniques, the addition of Finesse All-Ceramic is well suited and will only serve to improve dentists’ aesthetic aspirations (Fig. 2).

---

For more information, please contact:
MicroDental Laboratories
5601 Arnold Road
Dublin, CA 94568
(800) 229-0936
www.microdental.com

---

Properties: Flexural Strength ~ 125 MPa, Fracture Toughness ~ 1.25 Mpa.m0.5, VHN ~ 635, CTE ~ 13.5m/m/°C, at 500°C.

*Five-year recall studies provided by Dentsply Ceramco.