Abstract
The all-ceramic crown has undergone enormous development over the past 40 years, with its development being traced from the aluminous porcelain crown in 19651 to the Procera-AllCeram crown, with its dense alumina coping, recently developed by Andersson and Oden2 in conjunction with Nobel Biocare AB, Goteburg and Sandvik Hard Materials AB, Stockholm. Aluminous porcelain crowns were a much-used treatment modality 30 years ago, before improvements in the aesthetics which could be obtained by metal-ceramic restorations made these more popular. However, the development of all-ceramic bridgework has been altogether more elusive and, although recent work has reported short-term success with Empress 2 (Ivoclar-Vivadent, Schaan, Leichtenstein) bridges3, all-ceramic bridges are still far from common.