Daniel Wilson There was a thread last week when Sam kept asking why not Feldspathic Porcelain for a Veneer or an anterior crown. For me personally, a lot of my decisions for block was a matter of very my comfort was, and not being familiar with the properties of other blocks. After going to Level 4 a few years ago, it was the first time I really saw Sam and Mike's affinity for VITA blocks. As we can all attest to, Mike's case make us want to cry sometimes because they are so good and makes me wonder what type of "hack shop" I run :)
Everyday I get better and better with understanding block selection for certain cases, but as I use VITA Mark II or VITA Triluxe more, I really like the esthetic properities of the materials and obviously being able to see color straight out of the mill is a huge benefit too.
Here are a few cases that I have done to showcase the power of the block. Obviously, VITA isn't the strongest material we have so if strength is a major concern for a cause, I would revert back to blocks like Celtra Duo or eMax.
Case #1:
This patient hated the spaces at the gingival 1/3rd of her lower anteriors. She is post ortho and I inherited the case after the ortho was already finished. We discussed the challenges of closing the spaces completely, and I wanted to prep them as conservative as possible but essentially they are crown preps because I had to prep interproximally to the lingual aspect so far to help with the space closure gingivally, and was only able to preserve the lingual cingulum of the lower teeth. Funny how pics show all your flaws, but I swear I rounded all the preps with a 3M finishing disc and they still look to sharp in a lot of areas. Fortunately, the restorations all milled and seated beautifully. This was a case I did same day. I have 1 mill unit and used Biojaw to help with the design of the crowns, and the patient was in the chair for about 4 hours.
Preop:
Prep:
Day of Pics: 
1 month Post op:
Ironically I didn't stain and glaze the case. I tried the crowns in and polished them slightly but when I tried them in, she was so happy that she didn't want me to do a thing. So I polished them completely and bonded them using a total etch technique with Variolink Esthetic Neutral. The blocks were VITA Triluxe 1M2. I still am pretty amazed that we have materials that can come out of the mill, be polished and bonded and look like this.
Case #2:
Patient needed veneers on #8 and 9. Again I used VITA Triluxe (A1C) and bonded used total etch technique with Variolink Esthetic Neutral. This was one of my first cases with using GC Lustre Paste. I hate the texture. Part of the learning curve of using Lustre Paste. It really is apparent in the photos but the patient loved them so much that she didn't want me to touch them. One of these days I will find an excuse to polish this veneers more :)
Pre op:
Prep: 
Day of pic: 
1 week post op: Sorry about the articulating paper mark...ugh
Case #3:
This was a really frustrating case. Patient hated her crown because of the dark grey margins and asked if I could improve it. I tried and failed with emax LT. Ended up sending her home and milled out a few different blocks and the one that looked the best was VITA Mark II A1. I did bond this with a Variolink Esthetic Light. This was stained and glazed with Lustre Paste. The whole reason I chose to even mill the crown in Mark II was because I was reading about a veneer case that Mike had done where he was able to conservatively prep for a veneer and block out a reasonably dark prep. So I thought, what the heck, I'll try it. Not perfect but the patient was pretty happy.
Preop:
Color of core after PFM removed:
eMax tryin:
Post op:
