[Advantages and disadvantages of applying yttrium stabilized zirconium-dioxide post and core restorations]

Full ceramic restorations are associated with metal free post and core prosthodontics for teeth with seriously destroyed clinical crowns. Using custom made zirconium-dioxide post and cores can be flattering not only to give a good aesthetic result, but also to provide excellent retention. As none of the post systems stands all demands, prudent planning is mandatory. Our paper deals with favourable and unfavourable conditions as well as common causes of failures of post and core restorations. We took morphological, esthetical and functional considerations that can help to achieve the best results. Amongst them individual anatomic constitution, shape, width and length of the root and root canal, shape of the clinical crown, direction and magnitude of chewing forces are the most important factors. To give examples we present two cases of zirconium-dioxide post and core restorations. In our first case the missing clinical crown and a too wide root canal entrance created a questionable prognosis. To minimize adverse effect of the missing ferrule effect we applied custom-made zirconium-dioxide post and core and an additional abutment. After 7 years the restoration is still functioning. The second case represented a much favourable situation with 1,5 mm clinical crown height. The restoration was a custom-made zirconia post and core and a full-ceramic crown as a single tooth restoration. Although in this case we expected a better prognosis, 15 months later the patient showed up with a post fracture for applying extreme forces on the crown.