Monitoring fatigue damage in different CAD/CAM materials: A new approach with optical coherence tomography

To investigate fatigue damage over time, monolithic posterior computer-aided-designed/computer-aided-manufactured (CAD/CAM) crowns were artificially aged in a mouth-motion-simulator, and damage was monitored with optical coherence tomography (OCT).

Forty-eight crowns were milled of six different CAD/CAM-materials (n=8), including 3Y-TZP (Lava Plus,'3Y'), 4Y-PSZ (Pritidentamultidisc,'4Y'), 5Y-PSZ (Prettauanterior,'5Y'), zirconia-reinforced lithium silicate (CeltraDuo,'ZLS'), hybrid ceramic (Vita Enamic,'VE'),and resin composite (BrilliantCrios,'COM'), and were adhesively luted on CAD/CAM-milled human molars. Specimens were artificially aged in a mouth-motion-simulator (50-500N, 2Hz, 37°C) for a period of 1 million cycles. Before loading and every 250,000 cycles, the specimens were investigated with spectral domain (SD)-OCT (RS-3000). The maximum vertical and horizontal damage were measured with imaging-processing-software (ImageJ). After testing, the specimens were sliced and analysed via light microscope (Zeiss) to compare the new OCT method with the established light microscope method. Data were subjected to ANCOVA and 2x4-ANOVA.

No failure occurred during mouth-motion-simulation. However, all specimens (except for 3Y and 4Y) showed fatigue damage. There was a significant difference in the maximum damage between the CAD/CAM-materials (p<.05). ZLS exhibited the highest damage, followed by VE, COM and 5Y. While damage associated with 5Y was initially noticed after 750,000 cycles, all other materials already showed crack formation after 250,000 cycles. Furthermore, a linear increase in damage over time was noticed in all materials. Due to the shallow light penetration of OCT, damage in the outer area could only be visualized with light microscope.

OCT is feasible for monitoring fatigue damage over time within different CAD/CAM-materials, particularly for subsurface damages.