12 mm
The 12 mm disc handles single units, short-span bridges, and everyday crown-and-bridge work. It also nests the most units per disc, which matters when you're costing a job.
Explore Functional
Explore Functional
Regular price
$62.00
Sale price
$62.00
Regular price
Manufacturer: Upcera Dental
Upcera Explore Functional is a new generation of multilayered, pre-shaded zirconia. This disc combines 3Y & 4Y Zirconia in a seamless gradient of chroma, strength, translucency, and toughness. Whether it’s a single unit posterior or full arch hybrid, Explore Functional is up for the task. Furthermore, Explore Functional has a sister product called Explore Esthetic that is perfectly color-matched to provide maximum color compatibility with uncompromised esthetic expectations.
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Upcera Explore Functional Zirconia
Upcera Explore Functional is a multilayered zirconia disc that handles most cases in a busy lab. The base is 3Y zirconia, built to take load. The top is 4Y zirconia, built to let light through. Five gradient layers sit between, shifting shade, strength and toughness with no visible line.
Flexural strength runs 1027 to 1300 MPa. Translucency ranges from 43% to 46.6%, increasing as you move up the disc.
Every disc ships as pre-shaded zirconia in the 16 VITA classical shades plus BL1 to BL4. No dipping, no drying time. Mill, sinter, stain, glaze, out the door.
Built for Strength, Stability and Daily Reliability
Remakes cost more than material. A disc that mills cleanly and sinters consistently pays for itself.
1027 to 1300 MPa flexural strength across the gradient
3Y-TZP base takes posterior load and tensile stress on long spans
4Y-PSZ upper layers hold translucency, so you skip a second disc for the anterior
Low aging degradation, so the material holds its properties over years in the mouth
Even density through the blank, giving predictable shrinkage and margins that seat
Shade is already inside the disc, so hand-dipping leaves the bench. That removes the step most likely to throw off the shade. The A2 you mill today matches the A2 you mill next month.
Explore functional
Zirconia discs: specs and technical highlights
| Specification | Detail |
|---|---|
| Material | 3Y-TZP / 4Y-PSZ multilayer, pre-shaded |
| Gradient layers | 5 |
| Flexural strength | 1027 to 1300 MPa |
| Translucency | 43% to 46.6% |
| Shades | 16 VITA classical plus BL1 to BL4 |
| Diameter | 98 mm, 95 mm also available |
| Thickness | 12 mm |
| Finishing | Standard stain and glaze systems |
These explore functional zirconia discs run in open-architecture CAD/CAM systems and standard sintering furnaces. Stick to Upcera’s published cycle for the shade and thickness you are milling. Change the cycle, and you change grain size, which changes how translucent the finished unit looks.
Explore Functional Zirconia: Applications and Indications
Labs reach for Explore Functional Zirconia for crowns, bridges and implant cases where the restoration has to carry load and still look right.
Monolithic posterior crowns and bridges
Anterior singles where strength matters more than maximum translucency
Long-span posterior bridges
Full-arch implant hybrids and all-on-four work
When an anterior case comes down to translucency alone, Upcera Explore Esthetic suits it better. That disc is a 4Y 5Y multilayered zirconia, 727 to 1000 MPa, with translucency up to 48.8%. The two are color-matched, so you can mill anterior from one and posteriors from the other, and the arch still reads as one set.
Thickness guide
Explore Functional Dental Zirconia Blocks in Every Thickness
14 mm and 16 mm
for multi-unit bridges and deeper preparations
18 mm and 20 mm
for long spans and taller anterior units
22 mm and 25 mm
for full-arch frameworks and implant hybrids
30 mm
for maximum vertical height
Why Buy Explore Functional Zirconia from Zirconia Guys
Zirconia Guys ships Upcera discs to labs across the US from Iselin, New Jersey.
Genuine Upcera stock, never grey-market or repackaged
All 20 shades on the shelf, so a shade match never holds up a case
Fast domestic shipping, with better pricing at volume
Full Upcera range in one place, including Explore Esthetic, ST and TT
Buy Explore Functional zirconia online or call +1 732 664 6644 to open a lab account.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Explore Functional monolithic or multilayer?
Is Explore Functional monolithic or multilayer?
Multilayer. Five pre-shaded layers run from 3Y-TZP at the base to 4Y-PSZ at the top. You mill monolithically, with no cutback or porcelain, but the disc itself is layered.
How is Upcera Explore Functional different from Upcera Explore Esthetic?
How is Upcera Explore Functional different from Upcera Explore Esthetic?
Strength against translucency. Explore Functional is 3Y-4Y at 1027 to 1300 MPa. Explore Esthetic is 4Y-5Y at 727 to 1000 MPa. Both share the same shade system, so you can run Esthetic anterior and Functional posteriors in one arch.
Do I still need coloring liquid?
Do I still need coloring liquid?
No. The shade runs through the full thickness of the disc. Most technicians go straight from the furnace to stain and glaze, which saves bench time and takes dipping out of the equation.
Does nesting orientation matter?
Does nesting orientation matter?
Yes, and it trips up more labs than anything else with a multilayer disc. Nest it with the translucent layer at the incisal and the high-strength layer at the cervical. Upside down, the gradient runs backwards, and you only spot it once the unit leaves the furnace.
Can it handle full-arch implant hybrids?
Can it handle full-arch implant hybrids?
Yes. Technicians pick it for all-on-four and monolithic hybrid work because the 3Y base carries tensile load across unsupported spans.
