Zirconia plays an important role in dental labs everywhere. Even though there is a lot less manual work needed to produce zirconia copings and structures due to the ubiquitous CAD/CAM systems there are still a few manual operations and adjustments necessary. For these purposes only a limited set of instruments are needed to efficiently work zirconia both in green state and in fully sintered state.
DFS Diamon has developed a selection of tools for dry adjustment work and alternatively, instruments to be used with water cooling. It is very important that in both cases technicians are aware of the material-specific challenges in order to avoid microcracks and possible long-term damage to the zirconia structures. The speed recommendations should be strictly followed, especially since these are shape and instrument-specific. Excessive speed and/or excessive pressure do not lead to faster results but significantly increase the risk of reduced long-term stability of the workpiece.
The Circool Lab instruments are intended for dry adjustment work as the porosity of their material absorbs and transports a significant amount of the friction heat generated. The Circool XL instruments are for rough adjustment work; the Circool Lab instruments serve a similar purpose but are slightly less aggressive. The shapes available are a reasonable selection of what is typically needed for this type of adjustment work. DFS Diamon has indicated a shape-specific speed recommendation for these instruments which needs to be observed.
The Circool Lab instruments with medium grit (blue) are for fine adjustment grinding and prepolishing of zirconia. The Circopol Lab polishers are for final polishing.
The zirconia set 800139 combines the most important instruments especially those for dry adjustment work.
The most important instruments to be mentioned are the zirconia HP diamonds. These instruments are coated with specially selected diamonds and are manufactured in four different shapes. Small adjustments can be carried out with these instruments trouble-free under water cooling. As an alternative, DFS Diamon also offers some sintered and electroplated FG diamonds for manual adjustment grinding.
DFS Diamon has developed new instruments for green-state zirconia, among them the Mini Tri Zir to separate connecting bars vibration-free and the Circotrim to remove remaining stumps.
Two options are available for cutting off connecting bars, the conventional perforated diamond disc Sepaflex® and the gold-coated Sidiaflex Gold. The significantly longer lifetime of the Sidiaflex Gold is due to the full diamond on its edge. The gold coating moreover has the technical advantage of reducing heat generation by sparks.
