Casting of Titanium Alloys for Dental Applications

In dentistry, gold-based noble metal alloys have traditionally been cast into various types of dental prostheses, such as partial dentures, crowns, and bridges. More recently, less expensive dental alloys with base-metal elements, such as Co-Cr and Ni-Cr, have been used. Titanium is considered to be an attractive alternative to these traditional dental alloys because of its remarkable lack of toxicity and its mechanical properties that resemble those of hard and extrahard casting gold. However, casting titanium to make dental prostheses has been hampered because of its high melting point, low density, and high chemical reactivity; these characteristics make it difficult to carry out traditional dental casting processes. Over the last 15 years, pioneering researchers and clinicians have tried to overcome the problems associated with casting titanium dental appliances. The Department of Biomaterials Science at Baylor College of Dentistry has also investigated the feasibility of making titanium a viable choice for dental applications. The topics addressed in this presentation include: titanium alloys studied, casting performance, machinability, wear resistance, electrochemical behavior, biocompatibility, quality of casting, and veneering with dental porcelain.