Clinical experience, misunderstood concepts and frequently asked questions. Notes from many years of practice.
Implant, abutment, crown; technique, material, brand; marketing name, generic name. A working glossary for reading a dental quote, built on the profession's own glossary and peer-reviewed data, so that two quotes can actually be compared.
Monolithic Emax crowns showed 98.5% five-year survival, zirconia 96.8%. Why Emax often suits front teeth, and zirconia molars, bridges and darker teeth.
Celebrity smiles come from a planned treatment sequence, not one product: smile design, orthodontics where needed, then whitening, bonding, veneers or crowns.
A zirconia crown is a metal-free crown milled from zirconium dioxide; five-year survival as a single crown was 96.8% in a 64-study meta-analysis.
Emax is a lithium disilicate glass-ceramic material, while a veneer is a technique. This compares millimetres of tooth removed and ten-year survival data.
Composite bonding is tooth-coloured resin shaped on a tooth in one visit. Composite veneers pooled 88% survival over 24 to 97 months; chips can be repaired.
PFM means porcelain fused to metal, also called a metal-ceramic crown; three systematic reviews report five-year single-crown survival of 94.7% to 97.1%.
Long-term temporaries followed for a median of 362 days recorded a 14.1% fracture rate and 18.1% decementation. Plus what to do if one comes off.
A Hollywood smile is a result and veneers are one way to get there. Ceramic veneers pooled at 96.13 percent survival for feldspathic ceramic at 10.4 years.
