Abstract: Recently, with the improvement of living standard and the development of dental implantology, both clinicians and patients have more and more requests on esthetic restorations. Owing to the exposure of metal color, the traditional titanium abutments have poor esthetic outcomes in those patients whose gingiva is thin or the shoulder of implants are shallow. However, due to the excellent esthetic properties, all-ceramic abutments are becoming more and more popular with clinicians and patients. We summarized the varieties and fabrication methods, advantages, mechanical properties and applications of all-ceramic abutments in dental implantology. All-ceramic abutments haven′t been a conventional choice of implantology because of the price and mechanical strength, but their application will become more and more broad with the progress of material and technology.

Key words: dental implantation, all-ceramic abutment, esthetics