Ceramics in Dental Applications‪.‬

Introduction The word Ceramic can be traced back to the Greek term keramos, meaning "a potter" or "pottery." Keramos in turn is related to an older Sanskrit root meaning "to burn." According to Gilman in 1967, a ceramic is an earthy material usually of silicate nature and may be defined as a combination of one or more metals with a non-metallic element usually oxygen. The American Ceramic Society had defined ceramics as inorganic, nonmetallic materials, which are typically crystalline in nature, and are compounds formed between metallic and nonmetallic elements such as aluminum & oxygen (alumina-[Al.sub.2][O.sub.3]), calcium & oxygen (calcia--CaO), silicon & nitrogen (nitride-[Si.sub.3][N.sub.4]).