Survey of Preferences for Ceramic Materials on Tooth-Supported Crowns Among Dental Practitioners in Chile

To evaluate the preferences of dental practitioners regarding ceramic materials for tooth-supported crowns using an online survey and to assess the influence of age, gender, years of experience, and dental specialty on those preferences.

An anonymous questionnaire targeting 796 dentists was delivered online through Google Surveys. It contained 17 dichotomous, closed questions with two sections. The first section dealt with general characteristics, including age, gender, years of experience, training in prosthodontics, and hours worked per week. The second section included questions regarding preferences of different materials for crowns and the use of digital workflows. Analyses were carried out with Stata 14 software (Stata). A significance level of P = .05 was adopted.

A total of 248 surveys were answered. Practitioners in Chile preferred lithium disilicate for the anterior region (55.2%) and also for the posterior area (40.7%), regardless of their age, gender, years since graduation, hours worked per week, or any training in prosthodontics. Chilean dentists over 50 years old considered zirconia almost four times more frequently than those under 30 years old for anterior crowns (51.85%). Overall, 59.68% of the dentists take digital impressions, and 37.10% have access to chairside CAD/CAM technology. In this group, 54.4% preferred feldspathic ceramics for anterior crowns and 23.9% for posterior crowns.

While there is a wide range of dental ceramic materials, these results provide a snapshot of the current trends in Chile where lithium disilicate is the most preferred ceramic material for tooth supported crowns and metal-ceramics is the least preferred material.