All That You Need to Know About Zirconia Dental Implants (Part 7)
Zirconia is unlike earlier forms of all-ceramic restorations. It’s used in implant dentistry due to its comparative toughness to metal implants. It’s used for teeth due to its combination of form and function or excellent dental aesthetics.
After the Swedish chemist Jöns Jakob Berzelius first isolated zirconia, it took about 150 years before it was used in biomedical applications. It was Helmer and Driskell who published that scientific study of zirconia’s medical viability back in 1969. Afterwards, in 1972, Garvie and Nicholson found out that a zirconia alloy with oxides like magnesia, yttria, and calcia could stabilize its tetragonal modification.
In the 1980s, the metal dental implant used to only have two parts—the abutment where the prosthetic crown is placed and cemented and the fixture or post that’s screwed then fused right into the jawbone. The emergence and experimentation of zirconia for dental purposes made it possible for an abutment to be part of the fixture as one whole implant piece in the 2000s.
There is a percentage of patients with metal allergy and cannot take having metal fused to their bone as part of an implant procedure. All-ceramic or zirconia implants serve as the alternative to titanium implants and even metal dental restorations.
Next week we will continue with our discussion on this type of implants.