Choosing the right shade for patients is essential for giving them natural, realistic-looking restorations. A crown that looks even a tad unnatural can impact the whole smile — and the patient’s confidence.

Since the introduction of BruxZir^® Zirconia in 2009, clinicians have had to employ dental shade guides intended for use with other materials such as acrylic or porcelain. However, those shade guides cannot fully capture the unique look of a BruxZir crown. With the launch of the new BruxZir Zirconia Shade Guide, choosing the right shade is quicker, easier and more accurate.

Each tab is made with the same authentic BruxZir Zirconia material that has gained worldwide popularity among dentists due to its unbeatable strength and lasting performance. And, thanks to improvements in the material’s esthetics made by the R&D team at Glidewell, the reach and utility of BruxZir Zirconia has extended to full-arch implant prostheses and anterior restorations.

Because traditional shade guides are made from porcelain or acrylic, they do not reflect light in the same way that BruxZir Zirconia does. As a result, if a dentist uses a porcelain or acrylic tab to determine the shade for a zirconia case, the definitive restoration may have an appearance that does not exactly match that of the shade tab, despite both being identified as the same numeric shade.

What’s more, because shades are taken in a clinical environment, there’s the possibility that the final restoration may look distinctly different in one lighting scenario compared to another — an issue heightened by using non-zirconia tabs for zirconia cases. This optical inconsistency of objects that initially appear to match is known as metamerism.

By creating a dental shade guide that is made from the same zirconia material as a BruxZir Zirconia crown, dentists can cut down the risk of metamerism and more accurately select shades that will be reflected in the final restoration.

Sleek and simple, the BruxZir Shade Guide features eight shades affixed to plastic mandrels that are then fitted into one small tab holder. The tabs range from Z1 through Z8, with the Z1 tab being bleach-colored and Z2 through Z8 being equivalent to the most popular VITA^® shades.

Each tab can be easily rotated to feature their glazed and unglazed sides, allowing dentists to assess both final and stump shades. All of this is included in a clean, compact guide.

By keeping the shade count to just eight, the BruxZir Shade Guide cuts down on time spent second-guessing or finding the exact match. And, because the shade tabs are made from authentic BruxZir Zirconia, what you see during the shade-taking process is what you get when patient crowns & bridges are delivered back to your office.

Dr. Brandon Tiek, dentist and host of the “Teeth Talk Radio” podcast, said he “liked the simplicity of the guide,” and that he doesn’t “need a guide with 400 shade options.” As is the case with some other dental shade guides, there is such a thing as too many options. But the BruxZir Shade Guide will simplify and enable more accurate shade selections for BruxZir restorations for a long time to come.