Kuraray Noritake is well known for manufacturing dental materials, but did you know they have a long tradition in making porcelains of all kinds? Noritake has more than 100 years experience manufacturing all kinds of ceramics, so it is not surprising when Noritake put their energy into optimizing their chairside zirconia, that they would push the category a little further in the process.

With 763 MPA flexural strength, colour gradient, 15 shades and optimized for the CEREC Speedfire, Katana is not only pushing the accepted boundaries of dental zirconia, they are fast becoming one of the materials of choice for CEREC users worldwide. And as of CEREC Software Version 5.X, the sintering time for Katana has dropped from 30 minutes to 18 minutes, making single visit (and esthetic) zirconia a real possibilty for every CEREC owner.

The gradient allows 4 different shades to be integrated into the Katana block

Here we see how far we've come. Over 700 MPA and translucency similar to, if not slightly better, than e.max CAD.

Katana Preparation guidelines. When is the last time you saw 0.4mm from any manufacturer? Yay zirconia!

 

Shall we look at some Katana clinical cases?

First up, Dr. Kristine Aadland (CEREC Beta tester) and why she is using Katana every day:

(The case photos are linked to the original Facebook posts, if you want to comment)

Whoa, that first molar looks like a tooth!

But it's not a tooth - it's Katana.

Next up Dr. Dhavel Patel who runs the Keep CEREC'ing group on Facebook, with a great (chairside) indication for zirconia - the three unit posterior bridge:

Okay, a little bright, but overall not bad at all. It's a long-term, functional bridge delivered in a single visit!

Dr. Mike Skramstad has a few cases for us here. The first is a nice side-by-side pre-molar crown comparison between Katana and e.max:

And here a second case comparing the first molar crowns: Katana vs. e.max:

Implant crowns too. Katana over Atlantis abutment by Dr. Daniel Wilson:

What about anteriors? Really? Zirconia in the anterior...? YES! Here are two very successful anterior cases, the first from Dr. Jake Skowronski:

Okay, placing 4 units helps to control the esthetics of the restorative work, but what about a sinlge central? Would you try it? Dr. Mike Skramstad again doing the impossible:

What?

That's impressive. Zirconia or no.

So you see, this isn't the chalk-white zirconia of years past. In fact, zirconia as a dental material, has probably undergone more intensive development in the last 10 years than all other materials combined during that time. It's been incredible and, basically, after 2010 every major dental material company has put significant resources into developing zirconia and the result has been a strong growth in the esthetics of zirconia while maintaining enough strength to offer convential cementing.

Thinking of getting started with Katana, or already using it? Here's a great tip we recently picked up from Dr. Karyn Halpern:

How to clean Katana Zirconia restorations "I recently was introduced to and have been using a brand new cleaner for this purpose made also by Kuraray Noritake , called " Katana® Cleaner". What I like about it so far is its super easy to use and there are less clinical steps. After try in of your sintered zirconia restoration, you simply just scrub the cleaner on the intaglio of the restoration for 10 seconds or more, rinse & dry. You can also apply it to your preparation for 10 seconds or more, rinse and dry. The purpose of the cleaner is to recover the bond strength after contamination during try in of saliva, blood, gingival fluid, water etc. If you choose to use it, it replaces having to clean using phosphoric etch or other cleaning products."

 

Katana Cleaner

 

PP

Last but not least, here is the Technical Guide for Katana which explains the 18-minute sintering in detail (Click to Download):

P