Sagemax’s NexxZr^® T Multi Raises the Bar

When a product has been continuously refined and improved over the course of several years and is recognized as one of the best in its field, raising the bar even higher might seem daunting. The team at Sagemax Bioceramics, however, embraced this challenge with its NexxZr^® T line of zirconia.

"It takes a lot of time, resources, and especially smart developers with new ideas and direct feedback from users and customers," says Marian Schmitz, Director Global Marketing for Sagemax. "The close cooperation between R&D, marketers, and dental technicians also plays a decisive role. Sagemax is a very small team, so R&D knowing exactly what is important to the dental technician is critical in developing unique products. We really are close to the market, and we hear our customers and our dealers."

The team's development goal with its latest version of NexxZr T was to improve the esthetics while maintaining the high strength. The result is NexxZr T Multi, which combines very high flexural strength and a smooth gradient of color and translucency to create optimal conditions for the fabrication of monolithic or anatomically reduced single-tooth and bridge restorations.

"The benchmark is always natural teeth, which we try to replicate as closely as possible," Schmitz says.

Early feedback has been very positive: The team has received text messages from dental professionals describing the new material as "freaking amazing" and "a game-changer." One simply said, "Love it!"

The Sagemax team already had developed NexxZr+ Multi, and their goal this time was to adopt the good features of that concept but improve them further.

"The result was a concept with a fixed incisal (3 mm) and gradient area (4 mm) and a variable dentin area," says Schmitz, a dental technician himself. "The advantage is a simple and uniform positioning in the disc, regardless of disc thickness."

While NexxZr T Multi combines 3Y-TZP zirconia powder with medium translucency—and good coverage properties—with 5Y-TZP zirconia powder that offers high translucency perfect for the incisal third, Schmitz emphasizes that the result is not a "multilayered" material because there are no discernible layers, thanks to the proprietary production process.

"It is a no-layered multi zirconia due to the seamless color and translucency gradient," he says.

Other aspects of the production process make NexxZr T Multi particularly outstanding in other ways, as well—including when sintering.

"The shrinkage behavior during sintering is an important determinant," Schmitz says. "In order to achieve the best physical and optical properties, we use the cold isostatic pressing process for our new NexxZr T Multi. This ensures a consistent density distribution in the material and ultimately leads to improved strength and translucency. The result is tension-free sintering without distortion and a high accuracy of fit. This is particularly important for long-span restorations."

Overall, the NexxZr T line offers the versatility to process monolithic, cut-back, or layered restorations, with all color options: preshaded, monochromatic, or white; optional infiltration with coloring liquids; and two different multi options with color and translucency gradients.

"Our two multilayer products provide the right translucency for every patient case, from single crowns to multi-unit bridges and regardless of the shades underneath, while maintaining all options for the laboratory," Schmitz says. "Just test it and love it!"