Enamel wear caused by three different restorative materials

The ideal restorative material should cause minimal wear of opposing enamel. This study compared the effects of gold alloy, glazed porcelain, and a laboratory-processed composite on opposing enamel. Ten samples of a type III gold alloy, a porcelain, and a visible-light, heat, and vacuum-processed composite were abraded against cusps of extracted molars for 10,000 cycles on an abrading machine. Pretest and posttest profilometric measurements of the restorative materials demonstrated no statistical difference. Pretest and posttest tracings of the cusps were made on an optical comparator to determine loss of vertical height and surface area. The porcelain caused significantly more loss of vertical height and surface area than the gold alloy or the composite, which were similar.