Throwing a question out there…

April 6, 2010

We’ve had the ability to do Lava abutments – a zirconia abutment head luted to a milled titanium insert – for some time, now.  Of course, that involved waxing the zirconia portion of the abutment; scanning the titanium insert to define the inner aspect of the zirconia, and scanning the wax up to define the final contours of the abutment head.  Once the zirconia was milled and sintered, the abutment was complete by using RelyX to cement the zirconia to the titanium.

Now, we’re doing the same thing using 3Shape CAD/CAM technology to design the zirconia over a virtual representation of the titanium insert.  Again, the abutment head is milled and luted to the insert with RelyX.

My question is – Why can’t I do the same the thing with titanium?  If its okay to lute zirconia to titanium, why wouldn’t it be okay to design and mill the abutment head from titanium and then lute it to the titanium insert?  I have not seen this in any other literature.  Its a very cost effective approach for any lab that has the ability to mill titanium (like us!).

I believe I will call such abutments Ti²© Abutments.

© 2010, Jeff Saylors. All rights reserved.