Argen Digital Expands Custom Abutment Offerings
Inside Dental Technology delivers updates on digital workflows, materials, lab techniques, and innovation in dental technology through expert articles and videos.
October 1, 2014
Volume 5, Issue 10, October 2014
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It has been seven years in the making, but Argen Corporation has undergone a transformation similar in scope to that of the laboratory industry. As a leading provider of gold alloys and a trusted partner to the laboratory industry, Argen recognized early on the industry’s rapid migration to a digital workflow. In response, the company applied its 50 years of alloy manufacturing experience and began the arduous journey to not only reconfigure its most popular alloy offerings to a digital platform but also evolve to a one-stop shop for all of the laboratory industry’s digital restorative needs.
From selective laser-sintered (SLM) alloy copings and bridge frameworks to milled full-contour zirconia crowns, PMMA temporaries, milled or printed wax copings for casting or pressing, as well as milled digital models printed from intraoral scans, Argen continues to expand its line of digitally manufactured product offerings.
Most recently the company added custom implant abutments to its digital portfolio. Compatible with the leading implant systems, ArgenIS Abutments are milled with 5-axis precision to the highest quality standards. Full titanium with or without retention lines, zirconia-hybrid and screw-retained full-contour zirconia-hybrid abutments were the first to be released. This month the company announced two new additions to the line—an SLM manufactured screw-retained chrome cobalt custom hybrid and a gold-shaded titanium abutment. “We listen carefully to what our customers say they need,” said Jeff Lowthorp, Director Global Business Development. “The addition of these two abutment types reflects our commitment to provide our customers with the restorative products they need to meet the demands of their clients.” The gold-shaded titanium abutment, Lowthrop explains, is an important addition for those dealing with challenging cases where the esthetics of the case are challenged by the thinness of soft tissue or when all-ceramic crowns are prescribed. “The gold shaded abutment adds another level of esthetics to the final restoration,” he comments. “Many dental professionals want the security of the added strength and biocompatibility of titanium but the esthetics of all-ceramic. The anodizing process results in a warm, gold-shaded abutment that not only helps the tissue but also will allow that warm color to pass through the all-ceramic margin of a full-contour all-zirconia or IPS e.max restoration.”
The screw-retained chrome-cobalt hybrid abutment is manufactured using SLM 3D print technology, which allows Argen’s customers the freedom to order any configuration needed. Sitting atop a titanium base, the screw-retained abutment allows laboratories to build a porcelain crown directly to the CoCr abutment and end up with what Lowthorp terms “a screw-retained PFM implant that offers the accuracy, strength, and biocompatibility of titanium through its base.” “Screw-retained options are growing in popularity, especially where cleaning around the implant is important to offset potential implant failure,” he says.
ArgenIS implant solutions come complete with a scan body kit and Argen’s proprietary digital design library as well as all the additional tools and components necessary to complete implant abutment orders.
But Argen is not finished adding new products to its digital platform. Lowthorp hinted that down the road screw-retained bridges would be added to the lineup as well as other new products still on the drawing board.
