Short answer
A zirconia crown is a single-unit crown for a prepared natural tooth, designed in CAD from your scan and milled from a zirconia disc. Full-contour (monolithic) zirconia has no veneering porcelain and is the strongest option for posteriors; multilayer zirconia with stain gets close to natural shade in the anterior.
What it is
A single crown for a prepared natural tooth, designed on your scan file and milled from a zirconia disc. After milling it is sintered to full strength, then finished, stained and glazed.
It is full-contour zirconia, with no veneering porcelain layer. The disc can be a single shade or multilayer, grading from cervical to incisal. The disc type is part of our check-in: if the case depends on a specific one, note it on the Rx and we’ll confirm it when the case is opened.
When to prescribe it
For posterior teeth, full-contour zirconia is the pick when strength comes first. A 2026 meta-analysis in The International Journal of Prosthodontics pooled 64 clinical studies. Monolithic zirconia crowns on natural teeth reached 96.8% survival at five years, in the same range as PFM (97.1%), and monolithic designs had fewer fractures and less chipping than veneered ones.
The anterior is a different trade-off. Higher-yttria zirconias (4Y, 5Y) are more translucent but weaker: Zhang and Lawn’s review in the Journal of Dental Research puts 3Y at 0.9 to 1.5 GPa in flexural strength and 5Y at 0.4 to 0.9 GPa. When translucency drives the case and the stump is light, compare it with an e.max crown.
How we make it
We make zirconia crowns entirely in-house in São Paulo, Brazil, from the design on your scan to the glaze; if you send a stone model, we scan it here. Every stage is validated and logged, the crown goes through eight checks before it ships, and the portal shows which phase it’s in and since when.
What to send
The basics are in our case submission guide. For crowns on natural teeth, the most common holdup is a margin the scan didn’t capture; the intraoral scanning guide shows what to check before you send. For anterior cases, add a photo with the shade tab held against the adjacent tooth, as in our shade guide.
Frequently asked questions
Zirconia or e.max for a single crown?
In a 2026 meta-analysis in The International Journal of Prosthodontics, 5-year survival was 96.8% for monolithic zirconia and 98.5% for monolithic lithium disilicate (e.max), both in line with PFM. Zirconia wins on strength, e.max on translucency. Clearance, stump shade and tooth position decide.
What is the difference between 3Y and 5Y zirconia?
Yttria content. 3Y zirconia has a flexural strength of 0.9 to 1.5 GPa; 5Y has more cubic phase and is much more translucent, but drops to 0.4 to 0.9 GPa, according to Zhang and Lawn's review in the Journal of Dental Research. That is why the more translucent grades go where loads are lower.
Can I approve the design before milling?
Yes. Ask for design approval on the prescription and the case holds at the approval stage, which you can follow in the dentist portal, before it goes to the mill. It is optional: if you don't ask for it, the case moves straight from CAD to milling.
Sources
- A systematic review and meta-analysis evaluating the survival, failure, and complication rates of metal-ceramic, veneered, and monolithic all-ceramic tooth-supported single crowns (Part 1) · The International Journal of Prosthodontics (2026)
- Novel zirconia materials in dentistry · Journal of Dental Research (2018)