e.max Crowns
e.max Crowns: Lithium Disilicate Single Units
An e.max crown earns its place where the restoration has to vanish: anterior singles and premolars with the natural neighbors watching. We press and mill genuine Ivoclar lithium disilicate, monolithic or cut-back, and every single unit is finished under a ceramist's eye before it ships.
What Is an e.max Crown?
An e.max crown is a full-coverage lithium disilicate crown, pressed from an ingot or milled from a block of Ivoclar's glass ceramic. What is an emax crown compared to zirconia or PFM, in one sentence? It is the most light-friendly full-coverage crown available in everyday lab work, and it behaves that way in the mouth. The material passes and scatters light the way natural enamel does, which is why the esthetic zone is its natural habitat, and it bonds adhesively to tooth structure, which lets it hold securely on preps where mechanical retention alone would run thin.
When to Prescribe an e.max Crown for Your Patient's Case
Central and lateral incisors, canines, premolars, and carefully selected cases beyond: wherever shade match and translucency decide whether the patient smiles at the mirror afterwards. A lithium disilicate crown also solves the classic problem of the single discolored tooth next to bright neighbors, because ingot opacity can be chosen to mask the stump instead of broadcasting it through the ceramic. Under heavy parafunction or in tight posterior clearance, we will tell you honestly when zirconia is the better tool for the case.
Materials & Options
- Materials
- IPS e.max lithium disilicate (genuine Ivoclar ingots & blocks, batch-verified)
- Options
- Pressed or milled; monolithic (stain & glaze) or cut-back with hand-layered incisal
- Turnaround
- 7–10 working days
- Rush Available
- Not available for this product line
- Delivery
- Nationwide UPS/FedEx
- Digital Files
- STL, OBJ accepted
How We Process Your e.max Crown Case
- 1
Send Your Case
Physical impressions or intraoral scan files via our secure portal
- 2
Verify the Prep
Margins, reduction & stump shade reviewed by a technician before design
- 3
Press or Mill
Pressed or milled, characterized & glazed with documented QC
- 4
Deliver
Shipped with case-specific seating notes, timed to your appointment
Contact Us
Frequently Asked Questions
Press Your Next Anterior Case With Us
New accounts: we respond within 24 hours. Pickup & nationwide delivery available.
Open a Lab AccountWhat drives the emax crown price?
Design time, mostly. A monolithic unit with stain and glaze sits lower on the fee schedule than a cut-back crown with hand-layered incisal ceramic, and characterization requests add ceramist minutes. As the lab, we bill the practice per unit; the emax crown cost a patient sees is set by the treating dentist.
Can I put an e.max crown on a molar?
A molar emax crown on molar terms is a case-selection question, not a taboo. With a compliant prep, adequate thickness, and a patient who is not grinding through restorations, monolithic lithium disilicate performs well; where heavy bruxism or minimal clearance tilts the zirconia vs emax crown question the other way, we will recommend zirconia before we press anything.
Which code does an e.max crown fall under?
The emax crown dental code sits in the ceramic crown category of the current ADA schedule. We leave final code selection to your billing team, and every delivery includes the material documentation your records need to support the emax crown ada code you choose.
How do I cement an e.max crown?
Two routes. Retentive preps allow conventional or self-adhesive cementation; shorter or more conservative preps call for the adhesive protocol, with the intaglio pre-etched at the lab and a resin cement placed per the manufacturer's instructions. Silane and the final bond are chairside steps in your hands. Every crown ships with seating notes for the route we recommend on that case.
e.max Crown Thickness: Monolithic or Cut-Back Design
The first design decision on every one of these crowns is how the ceramic will be built. Monolithic units keep the full strength of the material and take their esthetics from staining and glazing; cut-back designs sacrifice a controlled facial layer to make room for hand-layered incisal ceramic and gain real optical depth in return. As an orientation frame for emax crown prep dimensions, monolithic work tolerates more conservative reduction, while a cut-back needs extra room for the layered zone; the clinical decision always remains with the prescribing dentist. We hold those minimums in CAD on every prep and flag any spot where the reduction leaves the ceramic too thin to promise durability.
Stump Shade, Ingot Choice, and Masking Dark Cores
Lithium disilicate comes in translucency levels for a reason, and choosing among them is half the esthetic result. A bright, healthy stump can carry a high-translucency ingot that lives from the tooth underneath; a dark core or a metal post needs a more opaque ingot that earns its shade entirely on its own, sometimes with a cut-back on top for depth. The ceramist can only choose well with good information behind the choice, so send the stump shade along with photos, ideally with the shade tab in frame and without flash washing the tooth out. It is the single habit that most improves the crown before it even exists.
Emax Crown Cementation, Planned Back at the Bench
Seating should never be improvised at the chair. During design we already decide which route the crown supports: conventional cementation where the prep offers retention, or the adhesive protocol where bonding carries the load. The emax crown cementation protocol notes that ship with each unit cover surface treatment, try-in, and our recommendation for that specific case, always with the manufacturer's instructions as the reference and the clinical call in your hands. How to cement emax crown questions beyond the notes get answered by the technician who built the unit, one phone call away.
The Honest Boundary: Where Zirconia Takes the Case
We press a lot of lithium disilicate, and we still send cases to the other bench without hesitation. Emax crown vs zirconia is not a loyalty question; it is a per-tooth decision. When a second molar carries a committed grinder, when clearance collapses below the material's minimum, or when a long span enters the picture, zirconia or a zirconia bridge serves the patient better than pressed ceramic would. Expect that recommendation from us before fabrication rather than after a fracture, because a remade crown costs everyone more than an honest phone call.
The Rx That Quietly Decides the Result
The Rx carries more weight on esthetic singles than anywhere else in the lab book. Give us the target shade and the stump shade, note whether you prefer monolithic or cut-back for this patient, attach photos with the shade tab in frame, and put the seat date on the slip so production can be planned backwards from it. Mention the patient's habits too: a known grinder changes the material conversation before it starts. When any of those are missing, we ask rather than assume; when all of them arrive, first-seat success stops being luck and starts being process.
From the Press Furnace to Your Schedule
Every e.max crown leaves Reliable Dental Studio with documented quality control, seating notes, and a turnaround of 7–10 working days (rush is not available for this product line). The company has been family-owned since 1994 and digital since 2010, and the ceramic bench works for practices in all 50 states via portal, UPS, and FedEx, with pickup arrangements for practices near a location. Send the next anterior single that has to disappear in the arch, or open a lab account; we respond within 24 hours once your request is in, and your paperwork decides how fast the first ingot gets pressed.