"World Leaders in the field of air abrasion technology"

Expertise that pays off today.

For over 34 years, Crystalmark Incorporated has developed and refined the air abrasion process for the aerospace, semiconductor and other high technology disciplines.  We bring all that experience to bear in the dental profession.  The highly evolved CrystalAir ™ system gives you a higher level of control for a wider range of treatment scenarios.  Our experience in other extremely demanding industries allows us to manufacture a system that is technologically superior and a greater value than that of the competition.

History of Air Abrasion:

Air abrasion technology was initially developed in the 1940's by Dr. Robert Black specifically for dental cavity preparation.  Unfortunately, the restorative techniques and materials available at that time involved the use of silver amalgam, gold or acrylic.  These restorative materials did not lend themselves to the type and form of cavity preparation generated by air abrasion.  This factor, combined with the introduction of the high speed turbine handpiece in the 1950's essentially pushed air abrasion out of the limelight until its resurgence in the early 1990's.

Crystalmark's beginnings:

While the use of air abrasion in dentistry was fading in the late 1950's, applications for this unique technology were being developed in other disciplines, primarily industrial in nature.  The founder of Crystal Mark, Inc. (the industrial division), Ernest Swan, pioneered many of these non-dental applications, and formed his own company in 1967.  Today, the company is owned and operated by his three sons and Crystal Mark, Inc.is still leading the way in new and innovative applications of air abrasion technology.

Crystal Mark not only manufactures air abrasion equipment and supplies, but it also offers "job shop" services in its Glendale, California facilities.  Job shop services basically provide in-house air abrasion services to customers who wish to utilize the company's expertise without having to purchase expensive industrial air abrasion systems.  Crystal Mark provides these services and in doing so it allows the company to discover even more new applications and solutions with air abrasion technology.  Crystal Mark can proudly name as its customers, such high-tech leaders as JPL, NASA, Hughes Corporation, Lockheed and many others.

From Dinosaurs to Dentistry: Many applications - total control.

Examples of some of the applications that air abrasion is used for.

                                         

Some of the industries which benefited from air abrasion's beginnings were high technology fields such as the semiconductor fabrication industry.  The world of  paleontology also derived spin-off benefits from this technology.  Applications from the precision surface finishing of semiconductor wafers to selective matrix removal from priceless fossils such as dinosaur bones has given Crystal Mark a far-reaching  knowledge base and an understanding of the intricate details of applied air abrasion technology.

                                           

Today, with the development of composite restorative materials and the public demand for better more conservative treatment options, the dental profession is seeing a resurgence of the air abrasion modality for cavity preparation.  Crystal Mark has been at the forefront of all other air abrasion applications for the last 30 years. We feel that it is only fitting that we return to our "roots", and give back to the dental profession the very best in air abrasion technology.   It is towards this end, that we have designed our line of continually evolving and extremly successful dental air abrasion products.

Why air abrasion?

From the patient's point of view, the most important attribute is the modality's capacity that allows for painless, anesthetic-free treatment of most incipient to moderate cavity preparations.  Air abrasion also eliminates the noise, heat, smell and vibration of the dental handpiece.  By doing away with anesthesia and the negative factors associated with the high speed handpiece, the dentist eliminates in one fell swoop the biggest stumbling blocks in access to dental care.  All of these factors contribute to a win-win situation for the patient and the treatment team.

From the dentist's perspective, air abrasion offers many benefits. With the development of stronger and easier to use bonding systems and new composite restorative materials, cavity preparations generated with air abrasion are much easier to restore than they have been in the past.  The new generation of composite restoratives go hand in hand with the three dimensional configuration of the air abrasion cavity preparation.  Air abrasion generates a cavity profile that has rounded internal as well as external line angles, and no microfracturing of the enamel.  These flowing internal line angles reduce the incidence of stress risers and provide a very nice cavosurface margin to finish to with direct composite restorations. 

The bonding of the restoration to the tooth structure negates the need to follow conventional G.V. Black cavity design parameters.  This is well established in the literature. This is primarily due to the restorative material being "actively" bonded to the entire tooth structure as opposed to a restorative medium that is retained by way of gross mechanical retention (read that undercuts) such as is the case with G.V. Black, amalgam fillings.  Furthermore, there is no minimal thickness of restorative material necessary in order to retain its structural integrity.  You can remove only that tooth structure which is cariouslly involved and leave sound tooth structure untouched.  The end result is the conservation of sound tooth, conservative cavity preparations and no structural damage to the underlying enamel/dentin.  The dental profession finally has at its disposal the modality with which to provide the patient with the ultimate in conservative dentistry.