Dental Asia May/June 2022

USER REPORT
Light management with Zolid HT+
A smart choice of framework material for full-colour control.
By Joachim Maier, MDT
Dental technicians have waited long for
high translucent zirconias like Zolid FX.
The natural light transmission enables us
to reproduce natural aesthetics with a low
thickness of ceramics. A prerequisite, however,
is the appropriate shade of the tooth stump
substrate, one which has no negative influence
on the shade result of the final restoration.
Fig. 1 Fig. 2
A young female patient was troubled by the
discolouration of the devitalised tooth 11 and
the inwardly inclined position of the two
central incisors. The discoloured composite
abutments on both teeth further intensified
the patient’s desire to optimise her visual
appearance (Figs. 2-3). Together with the
patient, the dentist and I decided on crowning
teeth 11 and 21 and reconstruction with
all-ceramic crowns.
Fig. 1
Fig. 3 Fig. 4
MASKING THE DARK TOOTH STUMP
Due to the darker tooth stump 11, the
dentist and I decided against the super
high translucent Zolid FX in favour of the
slightly less translucent Zolid HT+ (Fig.4).
The frame material was to reduce the
influence of the dark stump at a wall thickness
of approximately 0.5mm, such that the
subsequent veneer layer could achieve an
identical brightness value and remain stable
even under different light sources. The
different translucencies are represented in
Figure 6b.
The frame is milled in Zolid HT+ White and
adjusted to the desired dentin shade by
applying the liquid staining technique before
sintering. The frame shade selected was about
half a shade lighter than the dentin of the
veneer ceramics. This ensured a finely-dosed
and sufficient light reflection in the depth of
Fig. Fig. 3 5
Fig. 6b
Fig. 6a
Fig. 5
Fig. 1: Restoration of teeth 11 and 21 with crowns made of Ceramill HT+ and Creation CT
Fig. 2: Initial situation with insufficient composite abutments and discoloured tooth 11
Fig. 3: The patient wished to have a prosthetic correction of the retruded middle incisors
Fig. 4: Dissimilar shade basis: the darker tooth 11 is devitalised and must be masked with a more
opaque frame material
Fig. 5: Natural, simple characterisation with Creation CT as full veneer
Fig. 6a: Ceramill HT+ with its reduced translucency is very suitable for masking the slightly
discoloured residual stump of tooth 11
Fig. 6b: Comparison of translucency, from left to right: ZI, Zolid HT+ and Zolid FX
48 DENTAL ASIA MAY / JUNE 2022