Comparison of the accuracy of resin-composite crowns fabricated by three-dimensional printing and milling methods

This study aimed to compare the dimensional accuracies of three-dimensional (3D)-printed and milled resin-composite crowns, and to determine acceptable abutment-tooth shapes for printing. Four first-molar abutment models were prepared: the master model form and three models with sharp occluso-axial line angles. Crowns were designed on each abutment using computer-aided design software. The drill-offset value was set at 0.0 or 0.5 mm to evaluate the effect on the dimensional accuracy of milling. A digital light processing-based 3D printer was used to fabricate 3D-printed crowns. Milled crowns were fabricated by wet-milling. The trueness was evaluated by superimposing the design data. Regardless of the abutment form, 3D-printed crowns showed higher accuracy with fewer marginal discrepancies than milled crowns. Milled crowns showed significant dimensional deviations, especially at cusps. Moreover, offset correction resulted in grooves on the internal surface of milled crowns with negative deviations, which were especially evident in crowns for the sharp models.