Azienda - About Zirconium Dioxide

Zirconium (from zarkûn, in turn derived from the Persian zargûn, "like gold") was discovered in 1789 by Martin Heinrich Klaproth.
At room temperature appears as a white powder, odorless. It is a polymorphous crystalline substance.
Up to 1170 ° C has monoclinic crystal structure. From 1170 ° C to 2370 ° C has tetragonal crystal structure. Beyond 2370 ° C has cubic crystal structure.
The melting point is 2680 ° C.

During heating, the transformation from the monoclinic structure to tetragonal structure occurs with a volumetric shrinkage of about 5%. During cooling the reverse transformation from tetragonal structure to monoclinic structure is a martensitic type and occurs with a volume expansion.

In 1998 with the first studies in the dental clinic of the University of Zurich were used for crowns and bridges made of zirconium oxide produced by the system from the beginning DCM showed a remarkably high resistance to breakage.

The first systems were those of Degussa Dental (now Degudent group company Dentsply) in 1990 acquired the rights to the DCM system, developing the system "CAD-CAM Cercon" and the systematic etkon today straumann innovations have taken place since the start of the spread of 3D scanners, such as scanners DentalWings, Open Technologies RevEng Dental 3Shape or others that allow scanning of the casts and rapid CAD design of bridges, crowns, dentures and bars. Given its high degree of biocompatibility and lightness is now becoming the material of excellence in the production of high quality dental restorations.