Material guide.
A single reference covering everything on the prescription form, so the options can be compared without moving between pages.
Fixed: ceramics
Zirconia performs in the least thickness of any tooth-coloured option, can be bonded or conventionally cemented, and handles spans and parafunction. Translucency and strength trade against each other within the family.
IPS e.max lithium disilicate needs more thickness and depends on the bond, repaying it with the best optical performance for most anterior work. IPS Empress is more translucent again and lower in strength — thin veneers and conservative inlays in light function.
Detail on each is under fixed restorations.
Fixed: metal and metal-ceramic
PFM needs the most total reduction of the tooth-coloured options because coping, opaque and porcelain all consume space. It handles long spans, soldered connections, attachments and preparations that are less than ideal.
Full cast metal performs in the thinnest section of anything on the form, adapts and burnishes at the margin, and wears at a rate close to enamel — the kindest option to an intact antagonist.
Alloy is specified separately for full metal and ceramic work, and the choice affects masking, span rigidity, tissue response and cost.
Fixed: indirect composite
Tescera and Cristobal+ sit between direct composite and ceramic. Kinder to opposing enamel, genuinely repairable with direct composite, and less brittle in thin section.
The trade is wear resistance and long-term colour stability, both of which favour ceramic. Suitable where the antagonist needs protecting, where repairability matters, or where a definitive decision is being deferred.
Removable
Cast partial frameworks are rigid and tooth-supported through properly seated rests — the definitive option. Acrylic partials are tissue-borne and suit transitional use. Valplast and comparable flexible partials give metal-free aesthetics without rigid support.
Complete, immediate and over dentures are all on the form, along with reline, rebase and repair procedures.
Detail is under removable prosthetics.
Appliances
Night guards are offered hard or thermal. Hard acrylic is durable and precisely adjustable; thermal has a softer inner surface with a harder outer layer, more comfortable and more retentive on teeth with limited undercut.
Occlusal splints, sport guards, bleaching trays and sleep appliances are made to the same records standard as restorative work — an appliance made from a distorted record will not seat comfortably, and one that is uncomfortable will not be worn.
What changes the answer
Clearance is the constraint that cannot be recovered once a tooth is prepared, and it eliminates more options than anything else. Isolation decides whether anything bond-dependent is viable.
The antagonist matters more than it is usually given credit for: a hard ceramic surface opposing intact natural enamel will wear it over years, and surface finish determines how much. Where preserving the opposing tooth is a stated objective, cast gold remains the kindest option available.
Parafunction shifts everything toward strength and toward materials that are forgiving of overload.
Materials in combination
Adjacent units in different materials at the same nominal shade will not look identical, because different materials handle light differently. Where several adjacent units are planned, keeping them in one family produces a more coherent result than optimizing each individually.
Place any material change where it is least visible — typically at the canine or first premolar.
Opposing considerations matter too. Ceramic against an acrylic denture tooth will wear the acrylic, sometimes fast enough to alter the occlusal scheme within a few years.
Choosing between them
Four questions in order: how much clearance is genuinely available, can the field be isolated well enough to bond, what does the functional picture look like, and how demanding is the aesthetic requirement.
Those resolve most cases. Where the answers conflict — a bruxing patient with a high aesthetic demand, or a short preparation needing a bonded material in a field that will not stay dry — call before preparing.
The reasoning is set out in choosing restorative materials.
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