The new Ceramill A-Line

Melanie: What does the term Ceramill A-Line actually imply?
The “A” in A-Line stands for “Acrylics” and describes the relaunch of the entire PMMA portfolio of Amann Girrbach. We try to guide our customers through the jungle of CAD/CAM materials as best possible. Next to Zolid, which includes all products relating to the material zirconium oxide, we now also include a product group which covers all PMMA materials. The indication-related designations of the PMMA blanks provide even more clarity. In addition to the Ceramill A-Temp blanks for temporary crowns and bridges, the following are available to our customers: Ceramill A-Splint for the fabrication of CAD/CAM-manufactured splints and Ceramill A-Cast for the fabrication of crowns and bridges which are later used in manual casting and pressing techniques.


Melanie: Why did you decide to take this step?
In the end, we decided to take this step because of requests from our customers. With the new portfolio, we are “up to date” again, as the trend is clearly moving towards more efficient, simpler and, above all, more reproducible production of CAD/CAM-fabricated crowns and bridges. The new portfolio is much more customer-friendly and broader in its scope. With the A-Temp blanks, the user can, for example, choose between monochrome blanks and so-called multilayer blanks in the most common A-D shades. By the way, the shades are also something very special, and my colleague Axel Reichert is bound to be able to say a bit more about that. Add to this, the A-Temp blanks in block form as well as new intermediate sizes across the entire A-Line portfolio. This enables the user to fabricate even more efficiently and economically. The significant price reduction of almost 40% for the new A-Temp blanks also makes them more economical.


Axel: You have supervised the project on behalf of R&D. In your opinion, what are the most exciting innovations?
As Melanie has already mentioned, the most exciting innovation in my opinion is the shade of the A-Temp blanks. Amann Girrbach stands for consistent and well thought-out workflows, and of course we also want to reflect this in our materials. In the color development of the A-Temp blanks, we completely matched the A-D shades to our Zolid zirconium oxide products. The shades of the A-Temp Multilayer blanks are synchronized with the Zolid FX Multilayer blanks, and of course, we also adopted the nesting concept of the FX ML blanks. This allows the customer to cover two tooth shades with just one blank as accustomed, and thus work very economically. The monochrome A-Temp blanks match the Zolid HT+ PS shades perfectly and are truly esthetically pleasing.


Axel: What was the biggest challenge for you in this project?
The shade matching of two different materials with different optical properties is of course a major challenge. In addition to defining the color, we first had to agree on the right level of translucency. Under no circumstances did we want to lag behind our competitors with similar PMMA products and at the same time we had to manage the balancing act of getting as close as possible to our zirconium oxide. In several subsequent coordination sessions with internal staff and selected dental technicians, we determined the shade. Color matching with regard to our Zolid portfolio is really something new and unique on the market and we can now guarantee a consistent treatment concept from A(-line) to Z(olid).


Axel: What other innovations are there?
Extensive testing of clinical data by R&D has allowed us to extend the wearing time from 6 months to 3 years in comparison to the previous Temp Multilayer blanks and Splintec standard blanks. This gives both the clinician and the patient more safety and satisfaction in terms of the restoration.


Melanie: When will the new A-Line portfolio be available?
We will be presenting the new A-Line portfolio to a broad audience for the first time at the IDS 2019 and shortly afterwards supply the first blanks to our customers. Of course delivery depends on the approval. We will initially start in Europe and are already working at full speed on further approvals. We look forward to being able to supply all our customers with these great products soon.