PFM and ALL Ceramic Restorations: Preference, Confidence and Convenience

Discussion about porcelain-fused-to-metal (PFM) or all-ceramics are not about which is better than the other. Rather, they're about preference, confidence, and convenience. PFM has always had one limitation, “esthetics”. Dentists jumped on the opportunity to create better-looking restorations and prosthetics, as they developed. Same thing happened with introduction of the ceramics. The all-ceramic restoration has gone from being an incipient, new, disruptive technology to a mainstay in dentistry. Clinicians are increasingly moving towards all-ceramic zirconia restorations from PFMs because they enable better “esthetics” with additional advantages of biocompatibility, fit, chairside cementation and preparation options. This article describes a brief review over the trends used in dentistry for selecting the PFM or all ceramic restorations.