Supreme intelligence and a fast bur:

Cercon brain. The scanning and milling unit Cercon brain is filled to the brim with programming expertise - Non-contact scanning of the wax model, generation of the corresponding data record, milling of the zirconium oxide blank (Cercon base) - and at the end - the finished crown or bridge framework. You initiate these fascinating events with just a few keystrokes. The exact linear shrinkage, which will take place in the sintering furnace, is compensated for during the milling phase. During milling, the still unsintered  objects undergo precisely pre-calculated over-extension.

First it’s chalky, then it’s hot, then it’s hard.

Cercon heat. Cercon brain’s intelligence pays off when it enters the hot phase. At 1350°C, the single crown coping or bridge framework reaches its optimal strength in the Cercon heat furnace. Processed in a chalky-soft state, then just sintered hard – that is the secret of the “all-ceramic aesthetics” of zirconium oxide-TZP (“tetragonal zirconia polycrystals”).

It can do everything: Cercon base.

As Shakespeare might say, the zirconium oxide Cercon base blanks offer you “what you will”. Whether you want to make a single crown or four-unit bridge, there’s a zirconium oxide blank in the appropriate size: 12mm, 30mm, 38mm or 47mm. Each Cercon blank bears a printed-on barcode to automatically instruct the Cercon brain scanning and milling unit about the history of the blank being loaded, such as size and thickness. If the shape of the dental arch allows it, you can even make a five-unit bridge too – just “as you like it”!

The extra class: Cercon ceram S.

If state-of-the-art technology gets you excited, then get into the S class now! Cercon ceram S, the veneer ceramic in our CAM all-ceramic system, will convince you right away. We have naturally tailored its CTE perfectly to the framework ceramic, and at 90 MPa the fracture strength easily exceeds the 50 MPa required by ISO standard 6872. On top of that, it gives you endless possibilities for creating all-ceramic visual masterpieces.

Clean as a whistle - introducing the Cercon clean.

As you know, even a top-of-the-range car has to be taken in for inspection every 15,000 kilometres. Now with Cercon smart ceramics, you can enjoy a system that requires no maintenance at all – except for the milling dust extraction system Cercon clean. But you don’t even have to take that in for a simple filter change.

Cercon is an all-round material.

The high-performace ceramic, ziconium oxide has already been in use for along time - in diverse applications such as the Space Shuttle, Porsche cars, gems and artificial hip joints. As a dental technician, how would you now like to get back to the best features of your work? Strong, fracture resistant, pleasing to the eye, biocompatible - with pure TZP ("tetragonal zirconia polycrystals"), you combine the patients' wishes for a "white restauration" with the clinical requirements related to masticatory loading. In the future, these unique mechanical properties will make it possible for you to satisfy even more extensive all-ceramic work with a definite "Yes, of course that can be done".

TECHNICAL DATA

CTE:

10.5 (25-500^oC)

Color:

White

Bending Strength:

Approx. 900 MPa     

Coefficient of Elasticity:

210 GPa

COMPOSITION

Zirconium Oxide

and

Yttrium Oxide

   5 %

Hafnium Oxide

< 2 %                       

Aluminium Oxide + Silicon Oxide                        

< 1 %

(Total Composition 100 %)

It’s technically ingenious. The automatic ‘Crack Stopper’.

With zirconium oxide TZP (“tetragonal zirconia polycrystals”), you now have an extremely strong and fracture tough material that reliably withstands even masticatory loads of 800-900 Newtons in the posterior tooth region. The so-called tetragonal modification, hence the additive TZP, ensures even higher stability with an automatic Crack Stopper. The expansion of fine hairline cracks is prevented by a micro-structural modification that stops the cracking energy. It is simply no longer available for crack expansion.

Fatigue behavior of three all ceramic materials
J. Geis-Gerstorfer, P. Fäßler, R. Kirmeier
(Dental-Clinic, University of Tuebingen, Germany)

Ceramic veneering of Au-alloy and zirconia ceramic
G. Gröger*, M. Rosentritt, M. Behr, G. Handel
Department of Prosthetic Dentistry, University of Regensburg, Germany)

Simply beautiful down through the ages.

The aesthetics of the Ceylonese precious stone zircon (from the Persian zar-gun, gold-coloured) were what first drew people’s attention to zirconium oxide. By contrast, pure zirconium oxide is white and is used as a pigment, for example to refine porcelain.

You can now use the material in dental technology as well, and give many patients something that is particularly highly prized: captivating beauty.

There are three new highly-qualified “employees” in your laboratory.
 
With Cercon brain, you get a laser scanner with pin-point accuracy, a computer centre and a high-performance milling unit in your lab. As “input”, you provide the compact Cercon brain with your conventionally prepared wax model and an unsintered Cercon blank. The “output” that’s fully automatically generated is the crown or bridge framework, which is then sintered through in the Cercon heat furnace. Finally, you give the work the amazing aesthetics of an all-ceramic restoration by veneering with the low-fusing dental ceramic Cercon ceram s, which is specially tailored to the CTE of zirconium oxide.

Your previous knowledge matters now.
 
Let yourself be guided by your experience with precious metal technology! The waxed-up model is the basis and benchmark for the production of the substructure, as you’re accustomed to. In model preparation, you only have to pay attention to a few small details. For example, favour the chamfer over the shoulder if at all possible. Round off incisal cutting edges or occlusal surfaces. Block-out the die if the dentist has not done this for surgical reasons. The die’s truncated cone angle must not be less than three degrees, to ensure an optimal scanning process later. Prevent abutment divergences or block them out. As usual, apply an interspace varnish for the cement gap at the end.

With wax-up design, everything remains under your control.

Don’t let your expertise in assessing individual dental objects be taken from you! Unlike with CAD/CAM options, the CAM all-ceramic system Cercon smart ceramics lets you have full control of your work throughout the manufacturing phase. Your carving is scanned. You construct cusps and incisals and use your skills to test them in the articulator just like you’ve always done. You can shape the connection surface of the pontics very delicately, because the unique mechanical properties of zirconium oxide allow a cross-section of only 9mm2!

Digitalisation – prepared with simple movements.

No matter what size or batch you’ve chosen – the zirconium oxide blank provides the information: you just let the Cercon brain read the printed barcode. In this way, the device “knows” which size and batch it should adjust itself to. You then insert the cutting frame containing the Cercon base and the scanning frame containing your wax carving in the rotating and turning unit – and start the process with just two keystrokes.

Digital data – it runs by itself.
 
As if guided by a ghostly hand, a pinpoint accurate laser beam scans the wax model without any contact. Based on this the Cercon brain generates a data record that is then fed into the milling unit. The basis for calculating the later sintering shrinkage is already included as well.
 
It’s so quick: the milling process.
 
Have you ever tried to unravel the mysteries of knitting: two right, two left, let one drop and so forth? And hours later, you have a lovely sweater. The fully automatic milling process of the Cercon brain will thrill you even more. Just look! In 26 minutes you can have a single crown, in 50 minutes a three-unit bridge, and in 65 minutes - a four-unit bridge. It’s much easier and faster than knitting!

In the heat of the night: the sintering process.

Get away from precious metal technology for a little while! Unlike the solid metal alloy bridge units you’re used to, the zirconium oxide framework shrinks evenly in all three spatial directions in the Cercon heat furnace, reaching the exact size in an ideally linear fashion. Your work achieves anatomical precision overnight!

Trimming and fitting – it’s all in your hands.

Everything is under your control. After sintering, carry out any adjustments that may be necessary using a water-cooled turbine and diamond abrasive tool. Even at this stage, you can, for example, thin out margins. Your master model remains the benchmark for checking fitting accuracy.

Shaping of the finest.

Use your creative experience! The possibilities are endless when you perform conventional veneering with Cercon ceram S, the ceramic specifically tailored to the zirconium oxide framework material. Like a painter preparing his canvas before the first brushstroke, indulge in the pleasure of the “all-ceramic aesthetics” that you have created in this way!

Effenciency - the key to your lab's further advancement

Working with zikonium oxide lets you move into the top echelon of probably the mosthigh-growth and lucrative area of modern dentistry and without doubt the gateway to the future of dental technology. With Cercon smart ceramics, you have the ability.


Cleverly Calculated

Beauty and money make the world go round. If you make even just one attractive zicon oxide crown per day with your Cercon smart ceramics system, your investment - taking the depreciation of the equipment into account - will have paid for itself in five years. Once you make a bridge instead of a crown, this time is shortened even further. You can quickly estimate how worthwhile Cercon is for you with the Profitably Calculator.

New Basic Law of Dental Ceramics

The rule used to be that all-ceramic bridges were at best suitable for the anterior tooth region. Even the glass-infiltrated aluminium oxide frameworks suitable in terms of their bending strength did not withstand the masticatory loads in the posterior tooth region. The junctions of pontics in particular were at considerable risk of fracture. But the rules have changed in your favour. With zirconium oxide, there is now an alternative that is three times better than glass-infiltrated ceramics in terms of its fatigue properties and which has already proven its wonderful suitability in clinical studies.

The Clinical Foundations

A long-span zirconium oxide all-ceramic bridge has no problem withstanding the masticatory forces of 800-900 Newtons. If you are amazed and think this is hardly possible, that’s an understandable reaction! At the end of the day, no other high-strength structural ceramic currently known has these kinds of material properties. It goes without saying that zirconium oxide is a truly exceptional material. Many years of clinical studies at ETH Zurich verify its wonderful suitability for all-ceramic bridges of up to four units.

Strong, attractive and compatible:
You expect the best

There are not many materials, such as natural diamond, which combine exceptional beauty and strength. In dentistry, there has been continuous research and development to find materials suitable for dental prosthesis that are aesthetically acceptable, of sufficient strength and which are perfectly tolerated by the human body. For many years ceramic materials combined with metals have been used in dental restorations, ceramic to achieve the desired aesthetics, metal for strength.

A high-tech ceramic, Zirconium Oxide, is now available and has already been proven in many extreme situations such as heat shields in the Space Shuttle, brake disks for sports cars and the spherical heads of artificial hip joints. This high-tech ceramic has the potential to give prosthetic care a whole new image, because thanks to Cercon smart ceramics it can now be used in dentistry.

With the Cercon system, all-ceramic crowns and bridges of up to four units can be made in the incisal and molar regions. In individual cases, depending on the gap of the bridged teeth, even bridges of up to six units are possible. Additional dental applications are already in the testing phase and are just awaiting test results.

Sheer high-tech brilliance for the best results

Until now, zirconium oxide could only be processed at great expense because of its exceptional hardness and was thus prohibitive for use as a dental prosthesis.

As the result of progress of a research project carried out by the renowned Zurich Federal Institute of Technology, is it now possible to use this material economically in dental technology.

A wax form or model of your “new teeth” is created in the dental laboratory, to the precise specifications provided by your dentist. This wax form serves as the pattern from which a computer-aided milling unit creates your crown or bridge from a solid zirconium oxide blank.

A ceramic veneer in your individual tooth colours is then applied to the milled zirconium oxide unit to achieve the desired characteristics and natural looking appearance. The Cercon system operates safely and flawlessly, with everything coming from one source – DeguDent.

If you would like to learn more about the fascinating steps involved in creating a dental restoration from Cercon smart ceramics, please contact your dentist or his dental technical laboratory.

 Zirconium oxide blank

 Bonding porcelain

Kind to body and teeth in every way

Did you know that the skin on your back is around 15 times more sensitive than the mucous membrane (or tissues) in your mouth? For this reason allergy tests are often performed on an individual’s back. The test results with our neutral ceramic are clear and according to our current knowledge, there should not be any adverse reaction to Cercon smart ceramics even in the most sensitive of people. In the extensive literature available on zirconium oxide, no individual cases of allergic reaction have been reported to date. Possible interactions with any metals contained in existing dental prostheses will also be excluded. Your Cercon restoration will therefore promote your well being and keep you healthy.

Other important properties of a Cercon restoration are very positive for the wearer. The surfaces of the veneering porcelain Cercon ceram S ensure reduced plaque adhesion and thus support good oral hygiene.

What’s more, your all-ceramic restoration will have an excellent insulating effect and you won’t have to worry about any unpleasant sensations with hot or cold meals and drinks.

Cercon smart ceramics may also enable more gentle treatment with less tooth preparation, thanks to the excellent hardness qualities of zirconium oxide your dentist may be able to preserve more healthy tooth substance – depending on the individual initial situation.

Zirconium oxide has already been used in medical applications for nearly 20 years and as a result of long-term observations, the material may also now be safely recommended for the sensitive oral cavity.

Set value on true quality

In addition to a better appearance there are other features that determine the result and longevity of your investment that serve as a particular standard for quality. With Cercon smart ceramics, these quality standards are not just met but re-established. A Cercon dental restoration makes no compromises in aesthetics, compatibility, durability and function.

All the facts on Cercon smart ceramics for you at a glance

Improved Aesthetics

Compatibility

Durability

Natural Colour and Shape

As the term “all-ceramic” already suggests, Cercon smart ceramics requires no metal framework. This offers a great advantage for your restoration’s aesthetics, because the milled zirconium oxide substructure is white in colour. The milled unit is further modelled using Cercon ceram® S veneering porcelain to blend with the existing adjacent teeth in your mouth in both shape and colour, giving the restoration its very natural appearance.

With the additional advantage of having maximum stability thanks to its strength in thin sections, Cercon restorations can be well integrated to follow the natural contours of your mouth. Together with your natural teeth, a harmonious overall appearance can be achieved that makes as good an impression as your own teeth.