Yahya Karim is a director at the renowned dental laboratory services and technology business Fabdent, where he runs the day-to-day lab operations.
Fabdent founder and owner Terry Whitty has mentored Karim's career growth. Karim explains, "Terry is very well-known and respected throughout the dental industry in Australia and overseas. I've benefitted tremendously from his technical training, business knowledge and mentorship."
"An aspect of making a more valuable contribution to our clients and business is always working to develop shared knowledge between the lab and our clients. We aim to understand the practitioner's challenges and clinical techniques while we share what we know about materials science and fabrication techniques. This approach helps optimise our performance. Better-quality communication develops fabrication designs that are most closely tailored to the treatment plan, delivering better results for practitioners and ultimately their patients".
"We work with many of Australia’s best practitioners. Whether it’s full smile makeovers or emergency surgeries, knowing that our work behind the scenes achieves life-changing results for patients is why I love my job. As Muhammad Ali once said - service to others is the rent we pay for our room here on earth."
Dental restorations cover two essential outcomes – oral health and aesthetic results.
The intricate procedures performed by dental practitioners, in concert with the fit, comfort, and reliability of devices made by their lab, provide patient dental outcomes that are as close as possible to original healthy teeth.
The psychological results provided by natural-looking teeth are just as important to a patient's sense of confidence and well-being. Patient expectations are forever increasing, which has driven the heightened development of foundation and finishing materials.
Karim explains. "Natural aesthetics are achieved by replicating colour, value, translucency, contrast, and secondary anatomy. Colour includes the accuracy of the match to the patient's teeth and colour transitions across the tooth with a natural level of brightness and surface reflectivity. Naturally varying levels of translucency are also essential while recreating secondary anatomy such as perikymata, labial grooves and mamelons to match the natural imperfections of a tooth's surface."
"Zirconia has long been established as a high-strength, reliable and bio-compatible material for crowns, bridges, implants and veneers. Zirconia exhibits very high strength and chip resistance and will generally require little if any maintenance".
"The use of porcelain, on the other hand, dates back to the 18th century. In the last decade, it has been refined to achieve a natural-looking appearance and translucency characteristics”.
"We have found Dentaurum's new ceraMotion® Z Hybrid to be an excellent material for all-ceramic dental restorations. It delivers the best of all worlds in material strength and aesthetics. Plus, when used with ceraMotion® One Touch 2D and 3D pastes, the level of control we can achieve over the finer details is amazing".
"To provide an example: We had an enquiry from one of our clients. They had a patient who required a 6-unit bridge, and that was very particular about aesthetics. The flexural strength required immediately ruled out porcelain. I assured the practitioner we could deliver optimum aesthetics with more than adequate strength required using Dentaurum Zirconia. (In fact, ceraMotion® Z is suitable for use in bridges up to 14 units). The dentist and their patient were thrilled with the results".
A case example of Dentaurum ceraMoton® Z Hybrid
"ceraMotion® Z is great to work with. The material mills flawlessly in our Roland machine, and sintering is set at 1,480 degrees. There are 11 shades from Bleach 1 to C2. The colour accuracy is quite extraordinary compared to any material I've used before. Like all the materials from Dentaurum, their performance is always exactly the same – from milling to sintering to colour and finishing. It helps us perform our best consistently and reliably, which is good for our clients, their patients and our business”.
Everything you know about the compromise between Zirconia's flexural strength and aesthetics is in the past. Dentaurum ceraMotion® Z Hybrid is a highly versatile and advanced material that combines outstanding natural aesthetics, translucency between 44% and 47%, and high flexural strength of 1,020 to 1,300 MPa. When used with ceraMotion® One Touch Pastes, micro-layering can achieve astonishing aesthetic results.
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Yahya Karim Born in Oslo, Norway, Karim completed studies in the UK and Australia. He specialises in dental prosthetics and has a strong interest in digital dentistry. Karim is passionate about surgical and cosmetic restorative cases and works closely with Maxillofacial surgeons and cosmetic dentists. |
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Terry Whitty Terry Whitty is a well-known dental technology key opinion leader, consultant and author. With over 40 years of experience in dental technology, he lectures regularly, both nationally and internationally, on various subjects related to dental technology and material science. He has been presented with the diplome d’honneur at the Paris International Dental Film Festival for innovative digital case presentations, and has received numerous other awards and accolades. |
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Dentaurum has worked closely with dental clinics and labs since its inception almost 140 years ago. Our products are developed in close collaboration with clinicians, an approach that results in refinement through practice.
Articles and case studies such as this are intended to share approaches and experiences among the dental community. If you have a story to tell, please contact us.
Related article: 'Why I prefer Dentaurum's zirconia' - Terry Whitty, Fabdent