Dentistry and its materials change faster than cars change the design on their vehicles.
And when we started studying dentistry we had already been introduced to some ceramics, or porcelains.
We started to study its behavior on very destroyed teeth, on patients that had lost hope of saving them.
Ceramics have a very beautiful and noble reaction when bonded, or cemented to natural teeth, it adapts to the natural structure, and reacts very, very similar to how a tooth would react.
Some other materials, have a very strong, or should I say, very rigid, behavior, unflexing.
Yes it may sound weird, or even wrong but teeth have a certain degree of flexure, teeth bend to be able to support fracture. Interesting right?
And that’s when the use of ceramic, or porcelain, or emax, (it can have a lot of names) comes in to the game.
Restorative dentistry has a very good friend with Ceramic. There are a lot of variables, and designs; there is veneers, inlays, onlays, fragments even. Small pieces that can be restored with composite but are way better treated with Porcelain, why? Because ceramic, wont loose its color, or absorb any color, like stain from the coffee we drink. That is another great advantage of this material.
Don’t get me wrong, I love composites, also know as the normal fillings out there, but if you want something to last, its ceramic what you need.