Dangers of Zirconia Dust/e.max exposure?

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shinyteethandme

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Hi All,

New here. I've been working in a dental production job in California milling both e.max and zirconia for a few years now. I am wondering how safe the zirconia dust and e.max residue is to work around/if there are any long term affects like lung cancer associated with them. My efforts to research this matter myself has resulted in conflicting information or simply reading the words "this hasn't been tested or investigated" over and over again. I realize that working with Zirconia/e.max is a kind of working with ceramics/glass but do they pose the same types of risks? (I know silica can be dangerous but I believe this has been removed from the e.max and am not sure if it is present in ZrO2?)

So.. is it safe to be breathing in/working around at all? My hope is that OSHA has set limits on exposure to this kind of thing. I'm also curious if getting a little bit on your clothes then washing them using the machine at home is a bad thing or not. I wear a basic medical mask and smock daily, nothing fancy. Hoping someone with more years of experience can answer! Thanks!
 
CoolHandLuke

CoolHandLuke

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any dust is going to present the risk of damage to lymph nodes resulting in silicosis or similar symptoms. silicosis isn't limited to silicon exposure. for that reason it is highly recommended to wear a mask around dust clouds, and equally recommended to have good vacuum on dry mills or handpieces.

the particular materials of zirconia and emax present equal risk as plaster and gypsum. even drywallers use masks.
 
doug

doug

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Seeing that you are from California, I'd say everything out there causes cancer. just govern yourself accordingly :deadhorse:
 
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grantoz

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emax, empress 2, zirconia have been around now 20 years i think if there was a major problem then we would have all been up 5hit creek by now, but at least they took the uranium out of the vita 68 vmk porcelain.common sense would say dont suck it in.
 
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