What are Zirconia Implants?

What is Zirconia?

Zirconia is a very hard, dense material and has great tensile strength. Because of its high bio-compatibility, it is used in medicine for hip replacements and in dentistry for posts, crowns, implant abutments and now dental implants.

Zirconia has a color similar to teeth and is bio-compatible making it an attractive and superior material in implant dentistry especially when metal allergy, aesthetics and disturbing effects of metal in the body, is of concern.

Why use Zirconia in Dental Implants?

Zirconia dental implants are bio-intert (neutral to the body and tissues) biocompatible (integrate naturally with the body and tissues) and entirely hard and soft tissue-friendly, there are no allergic reactions and no sensitivity to temperature.

Given that they have the same color as teeth; zirconia implants have an aesthetic advantage over titanium implants along with other many unique properties that make zirconia dental implants the most superior dental implants available.

Good aesthetic results can also be obtained with titanium implants when ceramic posts and crowns are used. However this significantly increases the cost of treatment.

Ceramic implants cause little to no inflammation, display low plaque retention, and in case there is slight gum recession or shrinkage, they do not reveal unsightly grey lines like titanium implants.

Zirconia implants do not corrode and will not have any impact on taste in the mouth, and importantly, avoid the disturbing health effects of galvanization (electro-current disturbance) which naturally disturbs the body’s energy meridians, inter-cellular electric currents, and causes or accelerates disease processes.

Zirconia dental implants are the ultimate alternative for patients who are uncomfortable with or are unable to tolerate metal (titanium) implants.

Can Any Surgeon Place Zirconia Dental Implants?

Theoretically, yes. However ceramic implantology has now propelled dental implantology further into the realm of aesthetic and cosmetic dentistry.

Zirconia implants are one-piece and their placement angle and position are extremely critical and must be precise.

Unlike two-piece titanium implants, errors in implant placement cannot be corrected with angled abutments. Therefore any surgeon involved with these implants should have a high level of prosthetic awareness.

Enhanced diagnostic tools and surgical preparation steps such as: three-dimensional imaging, virtual planning and computer generated surgical guides, should always be part of the implantation protocol.

Dr. Maysa Eddie has been placing implants since 1998. She is one of few dentists placing metal-free dental implants in the Middle East. She focuses on natural and holistic dentistry to preserve the jaw bone and use animal free bone grafts. She uses 3D CAT scans to better diagnose and plan for implant treatment and implant site preparation.

Most dental implants used on the market are made from Titanium alloy. Metal alloys used in the body can be of concern to some patients that care about their overall health, and may have hidden metal allergies. Dr. Maysa Eddie provides this option to patients in her clinic providing the choice of non-metal/zirconia implants and abutments.