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Photo Essay
The Pursuit of BruxZir ®
Anterior Esthetics
– ARTICLE by Michael C. DiTolla, DDS, FAGD
Glidewell Laboratories continues to test what the lab can do with BruxZir ® Solid Zirconia crowns & bridges as it
works to improve the esthetic nature of this zirconia material. BruxZir crowns now account for 15 percent of
the anterior crowns fabricated at the lab, and as this number will likely continue to rise, the lab is committed to
increasing the material’s ability to be predictably prescribed in anterior situations. This photo essay illustrates a case where
we are prepping tooth #8 and #9 for BruxZir crowns. Tooth #8 is a natural tooth that has been endodontically treated,
and tooth #9 has an existing PFM that needs to be replaced. To view a live video of the case, visit our Video Gallery at
www.glidewelldental.com.
Figure 1: Following my own advice, I am taking
the shade before I do anything else to ensure
that the teeth have no chance of dehydrating.
When teeth dehydrate, they appear to be higher
in value than they actually are. I am using the
VITA Easyshade ® Compact (Vident; Brea, Calif.)
to determine the shades on the adjacent teeth.
Typically, I try to position the tip of the device
in the middle third of the tooth, avoiding the
increased chroma in the gingival third and the
increased translucency in the incisal third.
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Photo Essay: The Pursuit of BruxZir Anterior Esthetics15