3M ESPE Launches the Lava DVS Digital Crown
Standardized veneering with outstanding strength, esthetics and productivity
ST. PAUL, Minn. – (February 27, 2010) – 3M ESPE announces the industry launch of its 3M™ ESPE™ Lava™ DVS Digital Veneering System , which gives dental labs a standardized, controlled CAD/CAM veneering process delivering strength, esthetics and productivity. The system will be introduced to all labs with trainings and demonstrations at Lab Day Chicago, February 26-27.
The Lava DVS system makes production of full contour digital crowns easy, enabling dental labs to produce more crowns per day than with pressed ceramics or traditional hand-layered porcelain techniques. By starting with a full contour software design and coupling it with CAD/CAM-driven productivity, labs can nearly double their output, on average, as compared to hand-layered crowns.
"When taking scans from the 3M™ ESPE™ Lava™ Chairside Oral Scanner (C.O.S.), our ceramists can finish 2.6 times as many 3M™ ESPE™ Lava™ DVS zirconia crowns in the time it takes to finish one traditional hand-layered zirconia crown, and we are able to produce restorations of comparable or better quality," said Steve Daggett, CDT, partner of D&S Dental Laboratory, Inc.
In addition to increased productivity, crowns produced with the Lava DVS system offer consistent strength. Even when dentists provide a conservative prep and use conventional cementation, the system’s controlled CAD/CAM process ensures Lava DVS restorations are strong and beautiful every time, with the anatomically shaped zirconia core providing ideal support for the porcelain.
Lava DVS crowns are made of three components: the zirconia coping, the fusion porcelain, and the glass ceramic veneer. Each component is available in different shades and translucencies, with glass ceramic blocks in enamel colors and fusion porcelains in dentin colors, allowing the system to replicate natural tooth esthetics. The unique fusion porcelain adds dimension to the crown’s appearance, resulting in a full-contour restoration that is more esthetic than the single-layer made with pressable ceramics.
“The DVS overlay porcelain is a dense material. I can feel the difference when I grind on it,” said Brad Slominski, owner of Dental Crafters, Inc. “By taking many of the manual layering steps out of the process, we get an overlay ceramic with minimal porosity, which gives me great confidence in achieving not only consistent strength, but also excellent translucency and esthetics.”
To create a Lava DVS crown, the Lava zirconia coping and DVS porcelain are designed using the 3M™ ESPE™ Lava™ Scan ST Design System, then milled separately with the 3M™ ESPE™ Lava™ CNC 500 Milling Machine. The coping and glass ceramic are then fused together with DVS fusion porcelain, fired in a porcelain furnace, and finished with shading, staining and glazing. The digitally-designed glass ceramic final contour delivers the same precision that dentists have become accustomed to with Lava copings, bringing workflow standardization and greater productivity to the veneering process.
"What we have seen is an overwhelming acceptance by our doctor clients, increased lab productivity and profitability," said Dick Pilsner, CDT, owner of D&S Dental Laboratory, Inc.
To offer Lava DVS Crowns, labs have a choice of outsourcing milling to an Authorized 3M™ ESPE™ Lava™ DVS Milling Center, or completing a training session to learn the procedure themselves. 3M™ ESPE™ Lava™ Form Milling Machines can be retrofitted to use the technology, or labs can upgrade to a Lava CNC 500 Milling Machine or the upcoming 3M™ ESPE™ Lava™ CNC 240.
In addition to the training that will take place at Lab Day Chicago, courses on the Lava DVS system will be available at select milling centers throughout the year.
For more information visit www.3MESPE.com/LavaDVS or call 1-800-634-2249.
3M ESPE manufactures and markets more than 2,000 products and services designed to help dental professionals improve their patients' oral health care. 3M Health Care, one of 3M’s six major business segments, provides world-class innovative products and services to help health care professionals improve the practice and delivery of patient care in medical, oral care, drug delivery and health information markets. The recently created 3M Digital Oral Care Department, part of the 3M ESPE Division, aims to accelerate and strengthen 3M’s efforts to lead the digital transformation that is occurring in oral care. For more information on the complete 3M ESPE line of dental products visit the 3M ESPE Web site at www.3MESPE.com or call the 3M ESPE Technical Hotline at 1-800-634-2249. Products are available for purchase through authorized 3M ESPE distributors.
3M, ESPE, Impregum, Penta, Pentamix, Lava, RelyX, Ketac, Filtek, Adper, Sof-Lex and Imprint are trademarks of 3M ESPE or 3M ESPE AG.