Sameer Puri D.D.S. As you may have heard, Vita Enamic is a new block from the Vita corporation and is a hybrid ceramic. It is a porcelain that is infiltrated with a polymer that gives it the strength of a ceramic with the flexibility of a resin. There are a lot of benefits that the Vita corporation claims with this new block. The initial feedback from the community has been positive. Although its way too early to tell about the strength and longevity of the material, the laboratory studies certainly look promising.
The one critique of the material, if any, has been its inability to be placed in the oven. To gain the appropriate esthetics with the material, one must polish it. While it has the potential to be polished similar to a LAVA Ultimate restoration, the drawback is that the esthetics of the material is limited to an area of the mouth where you are comfortable with polished esthetics. Enter the new Vita Enamic Glazing kit. How can you glaze a material that you cannot place in the oven you might ask? Because of the composition of the Enamic material, the polymer component would simply melt away in the oven rendering the material useless. The solution by Vita is to have an "etchable glaze". The premise being that you treat the external surface of the restoration by etching it with HF acid for 60 seconds. This will remove some of the micro layer of the ceramic. After etching, you apply silane and then the glaze. After applying the glaze, the material is light cured, essentially bonding the glaze to the outside surface of the restoration. The plus to this technique is ease of use and rapid application. You can essentially glaze the surface in just a few minutes. The negative you ask, well, that is simple. How long is this glaze going to last? That is something that for now, we just don't have the answer to. No doubt in areas of occlusion, the glaze will wear away through abrasion. But in pits and fissures and areas where there is no occlusion, the glaze has the potential to last. Time will tell if this is a viable technique or just a gimmick. I'll be doing a few cases and can report back to you guys. And yes, I will have some videos in the digital learning section completed that walks you through this entire process. The glazing kit is pictured below. The full kit retails for $699 but you can buy bits and pieces and a la carte the kit. The stains from what I have been told go a long way so while the $699 seems expensive, this has the potential to last the clinician a very long time.
I contacted Vita on how to proper use this kit. Here are some tips and tricks from Vita's Mark Baker on how to utilize this stain and glaze for the Vita Enamic.
The Enamic staining and characterization is a different technique from the traditional furnace stains and glaze applications.
Here’s the rational and difference for considerations.
Never mix up Enamic stains and or glaze as you would prior for in the furnace traditional oxide types.
All Enamic stain /colorants being light cure resins demand being worked with in the ‘thinnest’ of applications as you’ve found out
The colorant stain should not be mixed or used as thick as one would with any traditional ceramic type applications for VITABLOCS or e.max
VITA Enamic Technique Recommendations:
Cleaning Liquid:
Used to clean the stain brush and pallet wells to remove stains etc.
Cleans the stain brush when switching from a dark value to lighter hue
Stain liquid:
Dispense the liquid into the black light mixing palette well only, and then only just a couple of drops
FYI-The cap has an internal brush which allows for the smallest amounts to be ‘dripped’ in from.
Stains:
Dispense the smallest amount of preferred stain/colors to be used. Just a few ‘grains’ of stain color from the bottle.
This will become a paint rather than a stain.
Now wet the tip of stain brush in the dispensed stain liquid and touch a drag a little to the stain particle. Now mixing this on the flat table of this black tray.
Mixing it well with the liquid to make a thin like paint and add more liquid as you require. keep it really thin!
Applications:
Apply a thin ‘lick’ of pour clean Stain liquid to the crown area you wish to shade.
(Do not paint the whole crown as it will affect the overall shade)
Careful of the blue and white stain colors which as you know are very intense. That said these work well when applied in this manner.
Again keep all the stains (really paints) applying them very thin.
If you have to much stain applied, you can add stain liquid carefully or wipe off with the ‘cleaner’ and start over again
Flash fixate the stains curing for say 5- 10 seconds with your light.
Recover your mixing plate as all times and clean the brush with the cleaning liquid supplied. Again think on a paint and not a stain.
Glaze:
Dispense one or two drops onto the mixing palette table, and not in the wells I’d recommend.
Using the supplied disposable microbrush adapters ( Do not use the stain brush as it will be too thick).
Start applying the glaze from the margins upward to the occlusal moving back and forth, say mesial –distal while barley touching the crown surface.
Continue on the Lingual in the same manner and contacts if required . (Applying to heavily may thicken up the contact areas).
Now with the same brush and smallest amount of glaze wipe the fissures first and then cusps.
This would help with your sighting of any articulation papers later if need intraorally.
Light curing to at least 4-6 times for 40 seconds with typical LED clinical lights. All the way moving around the crown.
A Plasma arch light 10 -15 seconds and a lab application light box (Triad/Kulzer ) 60-90 seconds
