Uncovering the secrets behind great products
Dr. Mike DiTolla talks with clinicians about their experiences using KATANA™ Zirconia. Together, they review clinical cases, examine the research behind zirconia, and explore the techniques, decisions, and clinical philosophies that contribute to successful patient outcomes.
26:22
Dr. Greg Campbell of Long Beach walks through the chairside cases that sold him on the KATANA Zirconia Block, starting with polished-only crowns whose fissure characterization came entirely from how he nested them in the block. He and Dr. DiTolla take on the myth that you cannot bond zirconia, compare five-year recalls against lithium disilicate and PFM in the same mouth, and unpack new research on cleaning restorations after try-in with MDP-based Katana Cleaner. A gold-school USC grad from the last class to place gold foil, Campbell explains why he gets paid to read the instructions for use.
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17:16
Dr. Kristine Aadland ran heavy equipment in construction before dentistry, and she still needs sedation in the dental chair herself. She walks Dr. DiTolla through her chairside KATANA Zirconia workflow: polished posterior crowns instead of stain and glaze, a bridge milled in 18 minutes, and a same-day anterior case she once thought zirconia could never match. Her own dental phobia, it turns out, is what taught her practice how to treat anxious patients.
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17:47
Dr. Dan Butterman of Centennial, Colorado makes the research-backed case for polishing KATANA Zirconia instead of glazing it, walking through his green-state pre-polish sequence step by step. He then shares the case behind the title: a fixed bridge rebuild for a 60-year-old patient whose wife wanted him to look younger, restoring lip-at-rest tooth display for a more youthful smile. The conversation closes with an Atlantis implant workflow where the KATANA crown is designed and milled before the custom abutment even exists, and why bonding with Panavia SA has become his default.
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22:53
Dr. Nate Lawson, director of biomaterials at UAB, walks through how a zirconia crown actually gets made, from raw powder and isostatic pressing to sintering an oversized milled blank down to a human-sized fit. He and Dr. DiTolla dig into polished versus glazed surfaces, wear on opposing enamel, when bonding beats cementing on short second molars, and why it pays to prescribe name-brand zirconia. The title comes from his father's joke about spotting an extroverted engineer, the personality Nate inherited from his engineer dad rather than the dentists in the family.
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17:16
Dr. Meena Barsoum walks through a ten-unit same-day case for a patient with decades of wear, collapsed vertical dimension, and a missing front tooth hidden behind a flipper he hated. He explains why he cemented KATANA Zirconia rather than bonded it, how the material's strength allowed thin connectors on a three-unit bridge, and how a lab-designed virtual wax-up, three mills, and an 18-minute sinter cycle compressed the whole delivery into one four-and-a-half-hour visit. The title is his measure of a good day: production goal met, patient transformed, home by noon.
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24:49
Dr. Daniel Vasquez, a 14-year CAD/CAM clinician from Oceanside, California, traces his move from glass ceramics to KATANA Zirconia, covering feather-edge margins, an anterior bridge that replaced a failing PFM, and his rule that every restoration gets bonded, never cemented. He explains why he quit fast milling entirely once he saw the anatomy the Primemill's extra-fine setting delivers, cutting finish work to nearly nothing. He also credits his brother Ruben for pulling him into dental school in Mexico, a career that felt routine until chairside CAD/CAM changed everything in 2008.
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18:03
Dr. Lynne Thomas of Poway, California walks through four KATANA Zirconia cases, from a failing lower bridge with subgingival margins to a fractured second molar on a bruxer, covering when she bonds versus cements, the APC protocol with MDP primer, and the custom milled shade guide she uses to match material to patient. She earns the episode title by wearing KATANA herself: two posterior implant crowns placed by her husband, a dentist working two operatories down the hall.
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23:29
Penn restorative dentistry professor Dr. Markus Blatz has spent 22 years and tens of thousands of specimens proving that zirconia bonds, and here he walks through his APC protocol, resin-bonded bridges, zirconia veneers, and the well-retained preps where conventional cementation still wins. Before dentistry there was another life entirely: a professional studio drummer and karate competitor whose tournament injury landed him in a dental school hospital, where the students restoring his face showed him his next career.
Watch EpisodeBeautiful on the surface. Engineered underneath.
