PMMA, Technopolymers Spike in Popularity

While zirconia still leads the list of the most popular milling materials, there has been a significant shift in usage of other materials just in the past year. For example, a comparison of our 2018 Milling Survey and 2017 Digital Technology Survey shows that the number of respondents using PMMA, acrylic, resin and wax has doubled and those milling technopolymers (PEEK, PEKK, AKP, etc.) has quadrupled. There’s also been a notable decline in milling noble and high noble alloys. 

Among our 2018 respondents, milled restorations make up an average of 83% of their C&B workloads, up from less than 20% a decade ago (see chart below). Two thirds have at least one mill in their laboratory—and...