Every day, Master Dental Technician Werner Gotsch faces the question of what materials can help him keep his laboratory in Marktleuthen, Bavaria – healthy and economically viable. Moreover, his customers, who include dentists from all over the country, expect more of him than just “standard quality.” What they do expect is individual, aesthetic, precise fitting restorations made from materials whose quality is beyond reproach. Werner Gotsch had the opportunity to accompany the development of the new zirconia-reinforced lithium silicate ceramic, Celtra® Press. In this interview, he tells us what sets this material apart.

Mr. Gotsch, what prompted you to get personally involved in the development of the Celtra® Press pressable ceramic material?
Gotsch: To answer this question I have to back up a bit, because there is a fundamental issue we need to clarify first. I am talking about the general role of pressable ceramics. To me, these materials have the greatest potential – along with zirconia – when it comes to creating highly aesthetic and durable restorations. Their process-related variability and aesthetic properties have now made pressable ceramics indispensable in the dental laboratory. However, despite all the advantages of the material and the associated procedures, all systems on the market also have certain shortcomings. So when Dentsply Sirona approached me with a request to get involved in the development of a new system that does not have the known disadvantages of existing systems, I agreed immediately.

It is probably not really that fair to talk about the disadvantages of other products. Let us talk about the outstanding characteristics of Celtra® Press instead. So what are those, specifically?
I want to make one thing clear: there are very good pressable-ceramic systems on the market. But if something is already good, that does not at all mean it cannot be improved further. I myself am not a materials scientist. I can only describe my impressions, which I collected in an intensive testing phase and communicated to the company. In simple terms, one could say that the main advantages are precision of fit and aesthetics. Celtra® Press forms no reaction layer on its surface, that is, at the interface with the investment material. This means that your divested structures are the same as the one you invested. This is impressive and of course has a positive impact on the fit and the precision of the pressed structures.

The reason for this is the special investment compound, a completely new development that is part of the Celtra® Press system and that prevents the formation of a reaction layer on Celtra® Press objects. This means that the objects can be easily divested using nothing but glass beads and that, moreover, the objects will fit after divesting without major finishing efforts. Which saves considerable time.

You were talking about aesthetics. How does Celtra® Press measure up in this regard?
The level of aesthetics that I achieve with e.max®1 is already pretty impressive. Now I was given a material, Celtra® Press, which claims to be a further improvement on this aesthetic result. My honest opinion? I thought that was just another one of those typical marketing claims. But then I found that Celtra® Press ingots truly offer great shade fidelity. With many pressable ceramics, the result deviates from the initially selected VITA®2 classical shade, so the objects need to be adjusted by ornate staining to obtain the right shade. With Celtra® Press you get the exact shade after pressing that you selected in the first place. In practice, that saves me an incredible amount of extra work. Add to this the material’s pronounced opalescence, which ensures that the shade of the adjacent teeth is “taken over” – downright absorbed, if you want to put it that way.

This results in extremely high-quality aesthetic results – without time-consuming reworks.

Are there any other aspects that you would like to highlight?
Let me remind you that I am not a materials scientist. But in a close cooperation with a research and development department you do end up learning one thing or another. For example, there is the high strength of Celtra® Press that results from the fact that the lithium silicate is reinforced with zirconia. This ensures a strength of more than 500 MPa. And this is why it is possible to produce bridges up to the second premolar with this material. The material is very stable at the edges, and the marginal accuracy is very high. Moreover, I have never before encountered a pressing material that flows as well as Celtra® Press does – which makes it possible to press even larger objects with only one sprue. So here is another one of those points that provide real added value to my laboratory, saving me time in sprueing, separating and finishing.

All in all, Dentsply Sirona has succeeded in introducing a new pressable ceramic system that combines excellent processing characteristics with high strength and great aesthetics. This reduces my lab time, I get a broader range of indications, and the optical properties facilitate restorations whose appearance is in no way inferior to the natural teeth.

Another advantage that I see is that the IPS e.max®3 muffle system can be used for Celtra® Press and that the material can be processed using all commercially available pressing furnaces. Therefore, no additional capital investment is required in the laboratory.

That sounds very enthusiastic. How would you describe successful dental technology today?
I would cite a phrase I often use at the end of my lectures or one of my workshops, a phrase that is more relevant today than ever: “Successful dental technicians are characterised by their passion for perfect restorations – and by their business acumen.”

1-3. Not a registered trademark of Dentsply Sirona

The interview was originally published in Dental Dialogue VOLUME 16.