Shear Bond Strength of Porcelain to a Base-Metal Compared to Zirconia Core

Recent clinical results for Zirconia all-ceramic restorations have revealed that the fracture rate 6-15% of the Zirconia framework is so low and the core of Zirconia has high stability. However, chipping-off fractures of porcelain are the most common reason for failures of Zirconia in the fixed partial dentures.

The purpose of this study was to compare the shear bond strength (SBS) of porcelain in the porcelain fused to metal and all-ceramic crowns with Zirconia core.

Two groups were selected: porcelain fused to metal (PFM) and porcelain fused to Zirconia (PFZ) (n = 30).In the PFM group, a wax model (10 × 10 × 10mm)was used to cast metal base (Ni_Cr alloy). In the PFZ group, an acrylic cubic model (10 × 10 × 10mm) was made as Zirconia model for scanning.15 cubic Zirconia samples were milled by CAD-CAM. The procedure of porcelain veneering was conducted by the conventional layering technique up to 2 mm thickness (2.5 × 2.5 × 2 mm). All specimens were stored in water for 48 hrs. Thermal cycling was conducted for 20000 cycles between 55°C and 5ºC alternatively for 30s.All samples were mounted in acrylic resin and the SBS test was performed, using a universal testing machine. The analysis of data was performed at a significance level of 0.05 using Kolmogorov-Smirnov and Mann-Whitney U-test.

Mean of SBS in PFM and PFZ was 24.57 and 20.88, respectively. The results of Mann-Whitney test showed that there was no statistically significant difference between the two groups of porcelain fused to metal and Zirconia in item shear bond strength (p = 0.455).

There was no significant difference between the two groups of PFM and PFZ in the item SBS.