Zirconia Crowns in Turkey

What a zirconia crown is

Zirconia is zirconium dioxide, a white ceramic that is very hard to break or bend. A zirconia crown covers the whole visible part of a tooth, like any crown, but it is made in one piece with no metal inside. On our price list it appears as the "Zirconia Crown (Vita)", after the Vita shade system used to match its colour. You may also see it called a zirconium crown: zirconium is the metal, zirconia the ceramic made from it, and in dentistry both names mean the same crown. This page goes deeper into zirconia on its own. For how crowns compare in general, and when a tooth needs one at all, start with our dental crowns in Antalya page.

Early zirconia was strong but chalky white, so it was usually hidden under a layer of porcelain or kept for teeth no one sees. Modern zirconia has changed that. Ours is Katana zirconia, made by Kuraray Noritake, a multi-layered material: the colour and translucency change gradually through the block, darker and more solid at the neck of the tooth, lighter and more see-through towards the biting edge, the way a natural tooth does. One milled crown can therefore carry a natural gradient without a separate porcelain layer on top.

What zirconia does not change is the tooth underneath. A crown still needs the tooth shaped on every side to make room for it, and that cannot be undone.

Where zirconia earns its place

Every crown material is a balance between strength and the way it handles light. Zirconia sits at the strong end, and that makes it the usual choice in a handful of situations:

• Molars and premolars. Back teeth take most of the force of chewing. A crown there has to cope with hard food, and with the grinding motion of the jaw, for years.
• People who clench or grind. Night-time grinding puts far more force on a crown than eating does. Zirconia is less likely to chip or crack under that load than a glass-ceramic.
• Little room to work with. Where the bite is tight and there is not much space above the tooth, zirconia can be made thinner than some other ceramics while keeping its strength, which can mean less of your tooth is removed.
• Crowns on implants. An implant has no natural cushioning, so the crown on top takes the bite directly. Zirconia is usually chosen here, planned with the implant itself; see dental implants.
• A dark tooth underneath. A tooth darkened by old root canal treatment or a metal post can show through a very translucent crown. The more solid layers of zirconia hide it better.

Who zirconia suits, and who it does not

A zirconia crown usually suits you if

• a back tooth is broken, heavily filled or root-treated and needs a crown;
• you grind your teeth, or earlier crowns or fillings have chipped;
• you want a metal-free crown with no grey line at the gum;
• you are having a crown on an implant, or several back teeth rebuilt at once.

We would suggest something else if

• The crown is a single front tooth beside your own natural teeth. Light passes through E-max crowns more like it does through enamel, so E-max is usually the closer match there.
• Your front teeth are healthy and you only want a new colour or shape. A crown removes a lot of tooth for a cosmetic change. Veneers or composite bonding usually keep far more of it.
• The tooth has an infection that has not been treated. The nerve is dealt with first, often with root canal treatment, so the crown does not hide a problem.
• There is too little tooth left, or the root is split. No crown material saves a tooth that cannot hold one. The honest answer may be an extraction and an implant.

The kinds of zirconia crown

"Zirconia crown" covers more than one kind of restoration, and the difference matters for how it looks and how it wears.

Full-contour zirconia

The whole crown, including the biting surface, is milled from zirconia and then stained and glazed. There is no second material to chip away, which is why full-contour zirconia is the usual answer for molars and for people who grind. With a multi-layered material such as Katana, the colour runs through the crown rather than sitting on the surface. The trade-off is that the depth of colour comes from the block and the hand staining, not from porcelain built up by hand, so it is less lifelike on a front tooth under close inspection.

Zirconia with a porcelain layer

Here a zirconia base is covered with porcelain built up by hand, to give a front crown more depth. It can look very natural, but the porcelain layer is weaker than the zirconia underneath and is the part that can chip. Whether a porcelain layer is right for one of your teeth is a question for your consultation; your written plan names exactly what each crown is made of.

Grades of zirconia

Zirconia is made in grades that trade strength for translucency: the more light a grade lets through, the less force it takes before breaking. Manufacturers publish their own strength figures for each grade, and our guide to E-max and zirconia crowns compared sets out the published figures and what they mean in the mouth. The technician chooses the grade to suit the tooth: more strength at the back, more light towards the front.

How our zirconia crowns are made

Every zirconia crown is made at OGN Dental Studio, the lab in our building. The prepared tooth is recorded with a 3Shape Trios intraoral scanner, and the technician designs the crown on screen from that scan: its shape, its contacts with the neighbouring teeth and how it meets the teeth above or below.

The design is milled from a block of Katana zirconia on Dentsply Sirona CAD/CAM equipment. Zirconia is generally milled while it is still soft and chalky, slightly larger than the finished crown, and then fired in a furnace, where it shrinks to its final size and becomes hard. After that the ceramist stains and glazes it by hand, matching the shade taken with VITA shade guides.

Because the lab is downstairs rather than across the city, the crown can go back for a change of shade or contour after the try-in and return while you are still in Antalya. The scanning and imaging behind this are described on our clinic page.

Your zirconia crowns, step by step

The trip follows the same pattern as any crown case: send photos first, then an examination, preparation, a few lab days, a try-in and the fitting. What is particular to zirconia is in the detail.

• Before you travel, send clear photographs and any recent X-ray, and tell us if you grind or have chipped crowns before. That helps the dentist suggest a material for each tooth in your written price.
• On day one the dentist examines each tooth and your bite, takes digital X-rays and confirms the material tooth by tooth. You agree the plan and the price in writing.
• At preparation each tooth is shaped under local anaesthetic, scanned, and covered with a temporary crown.
• At the try-in the dentist checks the fit at the gum, the contacts and the bite. A zirconia crown that needs its bite adjusting is re-polished afterwards, because rough zirconia is harder on the opposing teeth than smooth, polished zirconia.
• At the fitting the crown is cemented or bonded, and the bite is checked once more before you fly.

Crowns are a single visit on our price list, and for most crown cases we suggest allowing about a week in Antalya; our page on Antalya helps with the days in between. Your written plan confirms the days for your own case. Treat the figures on this page as typical, not promised.

The price

A zirconia crown is €170 per tooth on our dental price list. You pay for each crowned tooth, so a single molar and a row of back teeth are very different totals. The price covers the crown made in our lab; anything a tooth needs first, such as a filling, root canal treatment or gum work, is added to your written plan as its own line before you agree to anything. Crowns on implants are priced as part of the implant plan. To see how a plan with several teeth adds up, use the treatment plan builder.

Looking after zirconia crowns

Zirconia itself does not decay or stain, but the tooth under it can decay at the edge, where crown meets tooth. Brush twice a day, clean between the teeth every day with floss or small interdental brushes, and see your own dentist and hygienist for check-ups. Show them your written plan so they know which teeth are zirconia.

If you grind, a night guard protects your crowns and your natural teeth; ask about one at your consultation. If a zirconia crown ever needs replacing, it has to be cut off, because it is too hard to remove in one piece, so tell any dentist who treats you that it is zirconia. If anything worries you once you are home, send us a photo on WhatsApp and a dentist will look at it.

Risks with zirconia crowns

• The preparation is permanent. A tooth shaped for a crown will always need one.
• Sensitivity or a nerve problem. Preparing a live tooth can irritate its nerve. It usually settles, but a heavily filled tooth sometimes needs root canal treatment later.
• Wear on the opposing tooth. A zirconia surface left rough after an adjustment can wear the tooth it bites against. Careful polishing is how this is avoided.
• Chipping of a porcelain layer, where one is used. Full-contour zirconia rarely chips.
• A crown coming loose, usually because the tooth underneath has decayed. It can often be re-cemented if the tooth is sound.
• A slightly solid look on a front tooth beside natural teeth, which is why we usually suggest E-max there.

With good care a zirconia crown can last many years, but no one can promise a lifespan: it depends on the tooth underneath, your bite and how you look after it.

Who carries out your treatment

Crown cases at Persona Smile are planned by our dentists. The dentist who will treat you is named in your written plan, and you meet them before anything is done. Every dentist is listed on our dentists page. If you want to check how any dental material is approved before you commit, our guide to CE-marked and FDA-cleared dental materials explains what to ask.

Before and after pictures

We only show pictures of our own patients, with their written consent. As consented cases are added, they appear on this page and in our smile stories, never stand-in pictures of other people.

Next steps

To find out whether zirconia is the right material for your teeth, send us photographs and any X-rays when you book a consultation, or on WhatsApp. A dentist will reply with a material for each tooth and a written price from our price list. You can also read more about Persona Smile, our dental clinic in Antalya, or look through all our smile treatments.