[A PhD completed. Innovations in restorative dentistry: necessary or superfluous?]

Restorative dentists are faced with a dilemma: they needs to be aware of the most recent developments in order to be able to offer state-of-the-art care but they also have to be able to identify which of the many innovations are superfluous. In this doctoral dissertation the focus was on the role of digital production and procedures in restorative dentistry, and in oral implantology in particular. The variety of studies performed revealed that patients prefer to have impressions taken digitally rather than with dental impression putty and that digital impressions can be taken more quickly. Modern restorative materials are often made of ceramics, such as the white and aesthetically appealing zirconium dioxide (3Y-TZP). It was revealed that zirconia when used as abutment material for implant-born restorations showed no signs of degradation after 1 year of clinical use and was more or less as strong as it had been in the beginning. Milled composite resin crowns, however, that were cemented to them did not adhere well to the ceramic.