CASTING ALLOYS: Alloys

Metals and alloys play a prominent and important role in dentistry. These materials are used in almost all aspects of dental practice, including the dental laboratory, direct and indirect dental restorations, and instruments used to prepare and manipulate teeth, Metals and alloys have optical, physical, chemical, thermal, and electrical properties that are exploited to advantage in dentistry and are unique among the basic types of materials (metals, polymers, and ceramics). Although popular press dental journals have occasionally promoted “metal-free” dentistry as desirable, the metals remain the only clinically proven materials for many long-term dental applications.