Influence of preparation design on fracture resistance of different monolithic zirconia crowns: A comparative study

The aim of the study was to evaluate and compare the fracture resistance and modes of fracture of monolithic zirconia crowns with two preparation designs.

Forty human maxillary first premolar teeth were extracted for orthodontic purposes and divided into two main groups (n=20): Group A: monolithic traditional zirconia; Group B: monolithic translucent zirconia. The groups were further subdivided into two subgroups (n=10): (A1, B1) shoulder margin design; (A2, B2) feather-edge margin design. Teeth were prepared with either a 1 mm shoulder margin design or a feather-edge margin design. The prepared teeth were scanned using a digital intraoral scanner. The crowns were cemented using self-adhesive resin cement. All cemented teeth were stored in water for 7 days and thermocycling was done before testing. All samples were subjected to compressive axial loading until fracture. The fractographic analysis was done to assess the modes of fracture of the tested samples.

The highest mean values of fracture resistance were recorded in kilo-newton and were in the order of subgroup A1 (2.903); subgroup A2 (2.3); subgroup B1 (1.854) and subgroup B2 (1.523). One-way ANOVA showed a statistically significant difference among the 4 subgroups. Concerning modes of fracture, the majority of samples in subgroups A1 and B1 were fracture of restoration and/or tooth, while in subgroups A2 and B2, the majority of samples fractured through the central fossa.

Even though all the tested crowns fractured at a higher level than the maximum occlusal forces, the shoulder margin design was better than the feather-edge margin design and the monolithic traditional zirconia was better than the monolithic translucent zirconia in terms of fracture strength.