Ivoclar Speeds Up Chairside CAD/CAM With New IPS e.max ZirCAD Prime Blocks

Designed to make chairside zirconia crown production efficient and convenient for clinicians and patients, the new IPS e.max® ZirCAD Prime Blocks from Ivoclar can be sintered in as little as 15 minutes.

The latest addition to Ivoclar's IPS e.max line of digital dental materials, ZirCAD Prime Blocks are based on the same material technology used in IPS e.max ZirCAD Prime and Prime Esthetic discs.

Available for Dentsply Sirona's CEREC and InLab milling systems, the new chairside blocks achieve a strength of approximately 1,100 MPa after the 15-minute sintering cycle in the Ivoclar Programat® CS6 furnace. This allows the material to be used for single-visit crowns in any area of the mouth.

With a wall thickness of just 0.8 mm in the posterior, IPS e.max ZirCAD Prime Blocks are said to be ideal for conservative preps, and the blocks feature a progression of shade and translucency designed to mimic dentin and enamel to create highly esthetic restorations. This is accomplished because the material is formulated using 3Y-TZP zirconia powder in the dentin area and 5Y-TZP zirconia powder to create greater translucency for incisal areas.

After sintering the zirconia crowns can be finished and polished and then either conventionally cemented or adhesively bonded for maximum clinical flexibility.

“We are incredibly grateful and happy about the positive feedback we have received from our customers so far on the new block as well as on the Programat® CS6 furnace," says Ivoclar North America vice president product marketing Donald Bell in a press release. "By listening carefully to our customers, we have been able to develop a zirconia that empowers dental professionals to take their zirconia restorations to the next level. The reactions we got at DS World and the IADR Oral Health Research Congress in Rhodes, Greece were outstanding. We are looking forward to presenting our new IPS e.max ZirCAD Prime block to more customers at Chicago Midwinter in February 2024.”

IPS e.max ZirCAD Prime Blocks are available in size C17 in shades BL1, 0, A1, A2, A3, B1, and C2.