DeguDent

DeguDent GmbH was a company that emerged from Degussa “Deutsche Gold- und Silber-Scheide-Anstalt” and was known for a long time for the sale of products, system solutions and materials for the dental market. On October 31st, 2018, the complete takeover by Dentsply Sirona Real Estate GmbH was confirmed by the announcement in the commercial register.

DeguDent CAD/CAM production

Due to the previously closed system, many DeguDent scanner owners were unable to outsource their zirconia units to a milling center other than Compartis, DeguDent's own manufacturing center, which was sold to the Spanish company Phibo in 2015. 

DeguDent milling machines were also closed and could not process any other material than DeguDent Cercon. Laboratories that worked with a DeguDent solution therefore had no choice but to use this material. However, as soon as they had the opportunity, many laboratories have reoriented themselves and turned to other materials.

Nevertheless, the Cercon material introduced by DeguDent in 2001 is still marketed today by Dentsply Sirona.

DeguDent – closed CAD/CAM system

The DeguDent CAD/CAM system consisted of a DeguDent Cercon eye scanner, DeguDent Cercon Brain milling machine and DeguDent Cercon Heat sintering furnace. Within the closed system, only the DeguDent Cercon material could be used to manufacture dental frameworks. Laboratories that did not have their own milling machine in-house had the option of outsourcing them to partner laboratories or milling centers, such as CADdent®, who also used DeguDent equipment.

Using this system was easy. However, the increasingly diverse range of products and materials on the market brought with it the demand for open systems, so that laboratories could freely decide which supplier to produce or which material to use.

That is why we at CADdent® developed a process that also enables users of the DeguDent system to use the entire range of materials.
 

DeguDent Cercon history

With Cercon, Degudent introduced the first cost-effective process for the production of zirconia crowns and bridges in the dental field in 2001 and has continuously developed it. The first industrially colored zirconia blanks were sold back in 2003, and additional colors were added in 2009. The demand for more translucent material continued to grow and so Cercon ht was introduced in 2011. Just one year later, the color spectrum was expanded here too, and in 2015 the Cercon ht material was also available in all 16 classic Vita colors. In the same year a patent was registered for a disk adapter that enables open CAM systems to process the Cercon ht material.

DeguDent Cercon smart ceramics

In the meantime, the Cercon materials Cercon® xt (extra translucent) and Cercon® ht (high translucent) are part of the Dentsply Sirona Prosthetics product line. Both materials are available in all 16 VITA shades and in white. While Cercon® xt is only approved for restorations of up to 3-unit bridges, Cercon® ht can be used for indications of up to 6 units, telescopic crowns and implant abutments. 

Cercon® Materialportfolio von Dentsply Sirona

  • Cercon® ht ML: Hoch transluzentes Multilayer Zirkon
  • Cercon® xt ML: Extra transluzentes Multilayer Zirkon
  • Cercon® ht: Hoch transluzentes Zirkon
  • Cercon® xt: Extra transluzentes Zirkon
  • Cercon® base: opakes Zirkon

CONCLUSION

Dentsply Sirona still sells zirconia under the Cercon® brand and offers a wide range of products. At CADdent®, after extensive material tests and based on many customer opinions, when selecting our zirconias, we decided on other well-known brands and, with FAB Zirconia, added our own brand to our diverse material portfolio last year.

BLOG