The aim of this review is to determine the positive and negative qualities and properties of zirconium dioxide blocks of different generations, namely 3Y-TZP, 5Y-TZP, 4Y-TZP. 
 Materials and methods. A systematic literature review in the electronic databases Google Scholar and Pubmed was conducted. The articles whose content was based on mechano-optical and physicochemical properties of zirconium dioxide blocks of 1, 3 and 4 generations and their application in practice were considered.
 Results: 57 articles were reviewed during the analysis, of which 47 from Pubmed and 10 from Google Scholar were selected. After selecting the articles according to the criteria, the total number of studies was 27. The studies evaluated the mechanical and optical properties of different generations of zirconia blocks.
 Conclusion: The use of yttrium-stabilized zirconium dioxide ceramics of different generations in dental practice provides opportunities to obtain quality results in the fabrication and placement of crowns, dentures, veneers and other prosthetic structures. Speaking about physical, mechanical and optical properties, it should be noted that each generation has different indicators. Specialists should be careful when choosing zirconium dioxide ceramics, as optical properties are not always a decisive factor when selecting a material for fabrication of fixed structures.