Fixed Full Denture

 CONVENTIONAL TECHNIQUES

Experienced dentists are very familiar with conventional fixed prosthodontic procedures. However, some practitioners could increase their efficiency and clinical predictability by using products different from those that they have currently in use. We will make suggestions based on CLINICIANS REPORT (CR) (formerly named CRA) and other international research as well as our own personal experience relative to the most efficient, popular, and effective clinical procedures.

For more than 50 years, PFM restorations have dominated procedures involving single crowns. That day is rapidly passing. According to data from Glidewell Laboratories, one of the largest dental laboratories in the United States, during 2010 about one half of the indirect restorations were all-ceramic, and other half were the other types of crowns, including PFM (Jim Shuck, sales executive at Glidewell Laboratories, personal communication, January 2011). It has been our observation from speaking with thousands of dentists that this is the case regardless of what dental laboratory they are using. Milling of monolithic restorations in dental laboratories is beginning to dominate crown fabrication in many labs because of the ease of fabrication when using the milling procedure and the lower amount of labor required to hand-invest wax patterns, cast metals, and layer porcelain. From our observations and reports from laboratories full-zirconia crowns are among the fastest growing crown types in the history of dentistry. BruxZir from Glidewell Laboratories, was the first brand to begin this movement and there are now many more brands being marketed. PFM restorations, and now all-ceramic restorations, are the most commonly placed indirect restorations in the United States. In spite of the frustration expressed by many experienced dentists, full-gold alloy restorations are significantly reduced in use, and infrequently offered as a treatment option to patients.

The typical US dentist is using conventional fixed prosthodontic techniques and materials, although this long-proven, successful orientation is changing rapidly. We suggest in this article many successful devices, materials, and techniques that have been identified from research by CR, reports from hundreds of CR product evaluators, and from our own personal experience.

The following are categories of activity in the fixed prosthodontic procedure, with accompanying successful products that are well known to allow optimum speed and efficiency.