Studies on fracture toughness of dental ceramics

One important mechanical property of dental ceramics is fracture toughness, KIC, which represents the serviceability in the oral cavity, such as the resistance to marginal fracture. KIC values of several dental ceramics, natural tooth enamel and industrial ceramics were examined by use of the indentation microfracture (IM) method. This technique was based on the series of radial cracks emanating from the corners of the Vickers indentation. It was observed that appropriate load levels should be selected on each specimen to induce radial/median cracks. For feldspatic dental porcelains, larger loads of 10, 20 and 30 kg were needed to determine their KIC values in the range 1.5-2.1 MN.m-3/2. For natural tooth enamel and a new apatite-based castable glass-ceramic, a smaller force of 1 kg was sufficient to decide the respective KIC values of about 0.9 and 1.8 MN.m-3/2. The KIC values of most dental ceramics examined were slightly higher than that of soda lime glass, but less than one-third that of zirconia. It was confirmed that the IM method is simple and cost-effective for evaluation of KIC of dental ceramics.