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I’m having to replace my monolithic Zirconia crown (on molar) due to bad craftsmanship and ill fitting tooth preparation. I experienced bleeding in the gums during the year the crown was on. But I am unsure if that was due to poor fitting or allergic reaction. Otherwise, the Zirconia material itself did not seem to cause systemic harm.
My dentist recommended to place a monolithic e.max crown (lithium disilicate) instead. But I am worried about cytotoxicity and possible adverse effects.
Has anyone here experienced harsh side effects from Lithium Disilicate crowns, or knows someone who has?
And which would you recommend between the two - lithium D. or Zirconia.
Location: Miami (prev. NY, Atlanta, SF, OC and San Diego)
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Not a dentist, but look into CEREC crowns—digitally and computer produced crowns performed same day in just one visit without the need for impressions. Do a search for cosmetic dentists in your area or CEREC dentists.
The crown I will be getting is indeed a CEREC crown, digital impressions and fabricated through machine. But my question concerns material toxicity of Lithium Disilicate, not the fabrication process of the crown.
I'm not sure about emax but I know I had a reaction to 3 Zirconia crowns that were cemented in May. I've had severe dry mouth, tingling/burning tongue and roof of mouth, sour taste in mouth. I went to 2 different dentist and both told me it couldn't be a reaction to Zirconia since it's so biocompatible. I'm sure it's the Zirconia though because all my symptoms started the day the first crown was cemented. I was finally able to get a dentist to remove them. They were removed this past Saturday and I'm currently in temporaries waiting to see if my symptoms subside now that the Zirconia is out. My new dentist is talking about replacing them with emax but I've seen in other online searches that people have had the same sensitivity issues with eMax as with Zirconia. So now I'm at a lost. I would be curious to see what you end up going with for your crown and how that works out for you.
Are there any updates on this? I have a zirconia bridge with 4 crowns and two false teeth and I have been having the same issue with burning/tingly tongue and a sour taste for over a year! Which is when they were placed. They're ruin my oral health and I don't know what to do or if I should have them replaced. Any update would be greatly appreciated!
This should have been posted in the dental forum. I would have seen it earlier if it had been. materials containing lithium oxide are known to be more cytotoxic than traditional feldspathic dental crowns. But some companies still deny that and have done other studies. I'm a scientist and I know how you can design studies to show anything you want them to show. They don't want to admit that they have been putting these toxic matetrisls in our mouths for almost 2 decades. I believe what I see personally and I have had adverse reactions to 3 different dental materials that contain lithium oxide.
a major problem is that the ingredients in dental materials are proprietary and you usually cannot know what is in them. Ivoclar lets us know that emax has a high lithium oxide content. But other companies consider materials feldspathic and not lithium disilicates if they contain 0.5% lithium oxide or less. Someone at Henry Shein disclosed to me that their Noritake cerabien ceramic has 0.5% lithium oxide after it make my moth burn just as much as emax did.
My old crowns are a gold alloy coping called captek fused to Ivoclat Inline ceramic that had absolutely no lithium oxide and they are fine. But that is old technology that nobody seems to use anymore. I had posterior crown done with some new stuff called Bruxzir. I had some anterior crowns done with it and the tips burned my tongue. i found out why - labs fuse another ceramic to the front of them for aesthetic purposes. And that ceramic is something call Obsidian that contains lithium oxide.
It is very hard to find a dentist who even knows what is in the materials. The labs don't usually talk to people and they don't even know what is in the materials. They seem to be taught in school that it is impossible to be allergic to dental materials. I have heard all kinds of stupid things like they are the most inert materials known to man or that they are completely insoluble or that they are sintered so they can't cause a reaction.
Unfortunately the serum biocmpatability tests are bunk. I had them done by a company twice and the results didn't match.
I read your whole post this time. My experience has been that the serum bio test may not be accurate, because I am having all the horrible symptoms that others are getting from my zirconia crowns and the test said I was least reactive to these crowns. I was putting a lot of credence into this test, but maybe I should not The only reason I have not had these crowns removed yet is because my dentist said that one or two of the teeth under the bridge are weak and cd fracture from removal. What a choice. But I know I can't live with it.
One of the ingredients in my crowns is yttrium. I think it is in most if not all zirconia crowns. From my research it seems pretty toxic on it own, having all kinds of negative health effects. Does anyone know about this substance? I wondering if this could be causing my problems as well as problems for others.
I think the serum test is probably pure quackery. There are always people who get easy money exploiting desperate people. And when you have dental material allergies you get desperate because no one will help. They don't even know what is in the dental ceramics so how can they know if a person will have an adverse reaction? Companies used to be more open about ceramic ingredients but now I can't find the composition of things with an online search. That information is proprietary - trade secrets. It's outrageous that we are not allowed to know what they are putting into our bodies. The MSDS was replaced with the SDS over a decade ago. there is very little information about the material in an SDS.
If you want to find out how hostile dental professionals are when you mention allergies to dental materials check out this thread on a dental lab site:
I have just done some more research and have found that I have been lied to AGAIN about the composition of the BruxZir. It's not only zirconium oxide. It has a small amount of other elements including yttrium.
It's 99.9% Zirconium oxide yttrium oxide hafnium oxide and aluminum oxide. There is also some silicon iron and sodium oxide it it.
emax has never listed yttrium in it and I don;t think it has it. I still think it's lithium oxide that is giving me the problems, not yttrium oxide. Here's a site that lists emax ingredients; https://www.cadstar.dental/download/...disilicate.pdf
Who is this "they" you claim don't know what's in dental ceramics? I just did a google search on "composition of dental ceramics" and found this right at the top:
It's long, and I don't understand chemistry enough to even try deciphering it, but it's all right there, percentages, types, brand names, materials, other ingredients, etc. etc. etc.
KATANA â„¢ Zirconia STML offers an esthetic equivalent to
lithium disilicate with far greater resistance. This is why
many professionals love to use KATANA â„¢ Zirconia for their
posterior restorations. The great advantage of KATANA â„¢
Zirconia in comparison to lithium disilicate is that it can also
easily be used for bridges in the posterior area.
That's an example of what a company like Kuraray tells you. That seems to indicate that there is no lithium. But when I e-mailed them several times I got a rep to admit that it does have lithium. Here's the exchange. I first asked about their Ex-3 ceramic. The first response I got was " Kuraray Noritake does not share component materials, as this is considered proprietary information. We do not provide information other than what is on an SDS sheet. When the porcelain is fired, the material is homogeneous, and is not a collection of individual components."
I asked if I could at least know is their EX-3 contains any lithium and got this:
"we are unable to confirm this ingredient for you. You may want to consider CZR or Katana from Noritake, as these are more biocompatible."
I got this 4 days later:"After further research, it has been determined that there is lithium in the Katana material. We recommend that you search for an alternative material, based on your allergy."
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