Dental prosthetics serve to restore masticatory function. The materials used for restorations must therefore be strong enough to withstand the considerable masticatory forces, and must also be as wear-resistant as possible. These requirements make the use of metal alloys with tensile strength indispensable for most dental constructions – especially for bridging large gaps. Mechanical strength – hardness, tensile strength, modulus of elasticity – and handling characteristics in the dental laboratory are therefore the primary considerations when assessing dental alloys.
As the mechanical strength of pure metals is low, dental laboratories almost exclusively use alloys, i.e. mixtures of precious and non-precious metals. The various characteristics of dental alloys are attributable to the mixing of the component metals and their interactions. The most important of these characteristics are the melting range, the coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE), workability and resistance to the oral environment.
Corrosion behaviour, i.e. ion release, is a measure of how the alloy will perform in the mouth, which means that the chemical properties as well as the mechanical ones must be taken into account. BEGO takes great care to set requirements which exceed the international industry standards.
The biological behaviour (biocompatibility) is examined by complex testing at independent testing institutes. The results are documented in the form of bio certificates.
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