Testimonial from Patrick Briese, D.D.S

My zirconia rant.
Worth the read I think!

Wanted to give props to 38 Smiles Lab for their quick turnaround and full polished Bruxir crowns. I heard Mike DiTolla talk on a podcast about this lab not putting a glaze/varnish on their Zirconia. Instead they fully polish them and send back to you in 3-4 days. I gave them a shot and I’ve been very pleased and I really think this is a positive step forward in the race to the bottom atmosphere with single posterior Zirc crowns.

Random labs send flyers every week about cheap Zirc crowns these days. It’s because the pucks are cheap and they spend very little time on them. Most design whatever tooth is in the library that fits your prep, attempt to get the occlusion right, mill it, then slap a coat of glaze on it (which most likely makes it high now) so it doesn’t look like shit and then get it back to you 2-3 weeks later. You hack off all the extra cusps and anatomy that don’t match the opposing teeth and then you get your polishers out and get to work. Not all labs of course but you get the point. I actually hated doing posterior single unit zirconia and was mostly LiSi press. But I have to say I’m coming around to the model of what 38 Smiles is doing.

Originally posted on Facebook by Patrick Briese, D.D.S.