Porosities in a dental silver-palladium casting alloy

Twelve single crowns were cast in a silver-palladium alloy by six different casting techniques. Polished sections of the crowns were inspected and photographically recorded by light microscopy. The area of the inspected section of the casting and the number and area of pores were recorded on the photographs by means of a digitizing table connected to a microcomputer. A great number of defects were observed unevenly distributed in all castings. Only small variations were observed between the various casting techniques.