The Marginal Fit of CAD/CAM Monolithic Ceramic and Metal-Ceramic Crowns

Abstract

Purpose: Studies on the marginal fit of monolithic restorations are limited. This study aimed to evaluate the marginal fit among monolithic zirconia, monolithic lithium disilicate, and conventional metal-ceramic crowns and to compare the buccal and lingual surfaces.

Materials and methods: Thirty standardized stainless steel master dies were fabricated (height: 5 mm; convergence: 6°; chamfer: 1 mm). The dies were randomly divided into three groups (n = 10 each) according to the material used to construct the crowns: group 1 (LM): Lava Plus; group 2 (DM): IPS e.max CAD; and group 3 (MC): Metal-ceramic. The crowns were luted in a standard manner onto the stainless steel master dies using conventional glass ionomer cement. The vertical marginal gap of the restorations was evaluated under a scanning electron microscope (SEM) at 500x magnification. One-way ANOVA, Tukey´s HSD test, and Student's paired t test were used to assess the marginal discrepancy among the groups. The cutoff value for statistical significance was set at α = 0.05.

Results: Significant differences among the three groups (p = 0.0001) were recorded. DM group showed the lowest discrepancies (27.95 ± 9.37 μm). Significant differences were observed for the buccal (p = 0.007) and lingual (p = 0.0001) surfaces between the DM group and the other groups.

Conclusions: The accuracy of fit achieved for the three groups was within the range of clinical acceptance. IPS e.max CAD showed the lowest discrepancies.

Keywords: CAD/CAM; Monolithic crowns; lithium disilicate; marginal fit; zirconia.