Dr Scotti began working with Kuraray Noritake Dental’s range of products in 2012, having been asked to test the CLEARFIL MAJESTY ES-2 composite resin before its launch, and soon afterwards began a close collaboration with the company. “I consider Kuraray Noritake Dental to be a very serious company, one built on strong scientific foundations and with a great interest in innovation, as well as in consultation with opinion leaders,” he stated.

When Dr Scotti was presented with the opportunity to use the KATANA Zirconia Block in April 2018, it required a significant learning curve, as he had never used zirconia for restorations before. “I am not a dental technician, and when I received the zirconia block for the first time, I realised that I would have to develop some new skills in order to be able to work with the material in the best possible way,” he said. With the assistance of master dental technician Daniele Rondoni—a collaboration facilitated by Kuraray Noritake Dental—Dr Scotti was able to learn how to process and characterise zirconia, as well as understand the optical behaviour of KATANA. “I must say that the material, overall, is easy to use and provides amazing aesthetic results,” he added.

As part of his presentation, Dr Scotti described several case studies that had been conducted with KATANA Zirconia Block. One of these focused on a 24-year-old male patient referred to him with a discoloured upper incisor resulting from blunt trauma. “The patient had a fairly immediate aesthetic need, but in this case, I was unable to perform external whitening to lessen the discoloration,” explained Dr Scotti. “However, I was able to solve the case by creating an adhesive crown made from a KATANA Zirconia Block. Though the cervical area still showed a slight colour difference to the neighbouring teeth, it was not visible in the patient’s smile and he was extremely happy with the result,” Dr Scotti continued.

Overall, Kuraray Noritake Dental’s KATANA Zirconia Block is a great step forward for zirconia restorations, according to Dr Scotti. “Ten years ago, no one would have imagined being able to make a central incisor restoration out of zirconia,” he said. “Thanks to the multilayered technology behind the natural aesthetics of this block, today this is no longer a dream.”

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