OCC for Dowel-Cores

Strength for Clinical Use

Abstract

Laboratory work becomes very simple when castable ceramics, OCC, is used compared with other ceramics. As for esthetic dentistry, OCC has the same translucency and index of refraction as human enamel, and it can express the natural color of teeth.
When dental metal is used for building up a dowel-core in the treated tooth, the metal color shows through the outer crown made of OCC, though translucency is one of the merits of OCC. This causes the loss of the natural tooth color.
We have developed a method for improving the color of OCC crowns as follows: To preserve the esthetics of the OCC crown, the crown is built onto a dowel-core of OCC which is cast over a prefabricated titanium post (Para Post Unity Titanium Post) for reinforcement.
In this article, the strength of the dowel-core with OCC and titan metal under clinical situations was examined. The obtained result supported the findings that the OCC dowel-core with a titanium post can be used in the same way as dental metals in clinical cases.