Glazing isn't enough. DiaShine's CEO in Transcend Magazine

This summer's newsletter Transcend, published by the Washington Academy of General Dentistry, features the article, "Glazing Isn't Enough" written by DiaShine's CEO, Roland Bonser.

Glazing Isn’t Enough

“The restoration has been glazed by my lab already; it looks shiny and smooth so I don’t need to polish it.”

These are words that I’ve heard many times.

Glazed surfaces are not smooth at all even though they may look that way. See the two pictures below - using a 3D Laser Microscope you can see the rough surface of a glazed surface on an e.max® abutment as opposed to the polished surface. Even with the polished surface picture at 10x magnification, the surface variations are minimal. Glazing techniques differ which can leave the restorative surfaces quite rough; this is one way the opposing dentition can be worn leading to potential failure.

Studies are available that show glaze wears away over time exposing the rough surface of the restoration and this is most important in the occlusal surface. Once the rough surface is exposed, further wear of the opposing dentition occurs. This is not new information - polished restorations last much longer and prominent third-party organizations have shown this over the years with zirconia being a big part of these findings.

Many labs and docs still prefer to glaze and this will not change. That’s not the issue - glaze can be great at filling porosities in the restoration and adding aesthetics. Sometimes it’s a little too glazed and shiny so polishing can help to aesthetically bring that mirror-like finish back a bit - it just depends on the case. Aesthetics aside, the occlusal surface must still be polished smoothing out that rough surface so when the glaze has gone, the restoration’s occlusal anatomy is still very smooth.

There are certainly a lot of polishing products & techniques available today, from aluminum oxide polishing paste to diamond polishing paste, impregnated rubber wheels to impregnated flexible spirals. So what is the right product to use? That all depends on what restorative material you are using.

Restorative materials are different in their composition and so naturally they need to be finished differently. For instance, Zirconia and Composite are two completely different materials with very different properties and therefore need to be treated differently when finishing. These choices also change on a case by case basis. Perhaps a mirror-like finish is not ideal in certain cases as it doesn’t match the adjacent teeth.

At DiaShine® we focus on polishing materials and finishing protocols. Whether you’re placing porcelain, milling and placing e.max® crowns, adjusting a zirconia crown back from the lab or placing veneers, polishing is essential. We can help you find the right products for the right finish.

Both pictures below (DeOliveira, August. “I Like Big Abutments and I Cannot Lie”. Dentaltown. August 2014: 46-50. Print. Images taken by Olympus LEXT OLS4000 3D Measuring Laser Microscope.)