Marginal discoloration of all-ceramic restorations cemented adhesively versus nonadhesively

The authors conducted a systematic review to correlate the clinical incidence of marginal discoloration of all-ceramic restorations with the mode of cementation (adhesive versus nonadhesive).

The authors conducted a literature search by using electronic databases, relevant references, database citations and journal hand searches for clinical studies of marginal discoloration of all-ceramic restorations with a mean follow-up time of at least five years. The search period spanned January 1990 through February 2011. The authors reported and compared summary estimates and five-year event rates.

The authors selected 16 studies for final analysis from an initial yield of 346 articles. The mean observation time ranged between five and 10 years. The majority of studies used adhesive luting procedures for definitive cementation. In only one study did investigators report regarding the incidence of marginal discoloration of both adhesively and nonadhesively cemented all-ceramic restorations, and the difference between the luting types in terms of discoloration was not statistically significant (P = .5).

The results of this systematic review showed that there is a lack of studies with findings regarding marginal discoloration rates of nonadhesively luted all-ceramic restorations. Unacceptable marginal discoloration rates of adhesively luted all-ceramic prostheses were relatively low even at 10 years of service.