Fibrous ceramic aluminum silicate as an alternative to asbestos liners

Our plain-English summary of Fibrous ceramic aluminum silicate as an alternative to asbestos liners, by G. Priest, J.A. Horner (The Journal of Prosthetic Dentistry, 1980).

The study

• Authors: G. Priest, J.A. Horner
• Journal: The Journal of Prosthetic Dentistry
• Published: 1980;44(1):51-6
• Cited by: 10 articles, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher

Abstract

The actual risk to those exposed to asbestos fibers in the dental laboratory is presently unknown. The ADA Council on Dental Materials and Devices and ADA Council on Dental Therapeutics have received encouragement from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health to conduct further studies, including monitoring airborne asbestos in dental laboratories. It has been suggested that no really safe threshold limit exists for airborne asbestos fibers. Low level asbestos exposure has been implicated in numerous serious diseases. Exposures as brief as 1 month have produced disease many years later. Numerous researchers have advocated the use of a safer material. Casting ring liners compound of currently available fibrous ceramic aluminum silicate are technically adequate substitutes for asbestos.

In plain English

This 1980 article was a review and commentary, not a study of people. The authors argued that dental laboratories should replace asbestos casting ring liners, which they called the remaining dental use of asbestos, with liners of fibrous ceramic aluminum silicate. Summarizing published research, they reported that ceramic fibers had shown a greatly reduced risk in animal studies. Their scanning electron microscope images showed ceramic fibers as relatively uniform and glass-like, while asbestos fibers were quite small by comparison. They cited a study by Steinbock and Asgar that found no difference in casting accuracy between the two liner types. They also said technicians in their own laboratory preferred handling ceramic liners. The authors stated that the actual risk to people exposed to asbestos in the dental laboratory was unknown. They concluded that any quantity of airborne asbestos fibers must be considered a health hazard, that asbestos should be eliminated from the dental environment, and that ceramic aluminum silicate appears to be an effective alternative liner.

We wrote this plain-English summary from the full article with the help of AI, and a second AI model checked each sentence against the article. It is not the authors' wording; the abstract and the article are their own account.

What the study did and found

• Design: Narrative review and commentary recommending a substitute material, illustrated with scanning electron micrographs of liner fibers; no people were studied and no measurements of airborne fibers were made
• Who was studied: No human population was studied. The article concerned dental casting ring liners made of asbestos and of ceramic aluminum silicate fibers, as used in dental laboratories; the authors were based at Fort Gordon, Georgia, USA
• Exposure: Asbestos casting ring liners used in dental casting, compared with liners of fibrous ceramic aluminum silicate. The article does not state which asbestos fiber type the dental liners contained
• Main results:
  • In the authors' scanning electron micrographs, ceramic fibers from a ceramic ring liner looked relatively uniform and glass-like
  • In the authors' scanning electron micrographs, asbestos fibers were quite small compared with ceramic aluminum silicate fibers
  • Summarizing other research, the authors reported that ceramic fibers had shown a greatly reduced risk in animal studies
  • The authors cited a study by Steinbock and Asgar (not their own work) that found no difference in casting accuracy between ceramic fiber liners and asbestos liners
  • Technicians in the authors' laboratory preferred the handling properties of ceramic fiber liners (the number of technicians was not given)
  • The authors stated that the actual risk to people exposed to asbestos fibers in the dental laboratory was unknown
• The authors' conclusion: The authors concluded that any quantity of airborne asbestos fibers must be considered a health hazard, that asbestos should be eliminated from the dental environment, and that fibrous ceramic aluminum silicate appears to be an effective alternative to asbestos as a casting ring liner

Topics

Medical terms in this study, explained in our Lexicon: Silicate, Asbestos Exposure.

Related studies

• Potential health hazards of ceramic ring lining material — D.R. Davis (1987)
• An investigation of the potential biohazards associated with asbestos-substitute casting ring liners — G.J. Tulachka, W.A. Brantley, et al. (1987)
• Health effects of refractory ceramic fibres: scientific issues and policy considerations — L.R. Glass, R.C. Brown, et al. (1995)
• The effect of casting ring liners on the potential expansion of a gypsum-bonded investment — R. Earnshaw (1988)
• The fit of gold-alloy full-crown castings made with pre-wetted casting ring liners — E.F. Morey, R. Earnshaw (1992)
• Dimensional accuracy of small gold alloy castings. Part 4. The casting ring and ring liners — E.F. Morey (1992)

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