Comparison of load bearing capacity of ceramic crowns with zirconia or polyetherketoneketone frameworks.

Abstract

The aim of the present study was to compare the load bearing capacity of monolithic or bilayered single crowns with zirconia or polyetherketoneketone frameworks designed and fabricated using CAD/CAM systems. Cr-Co-based metal dies (n = 60) were duplicated from an extracted and prepared premolar and then restored with different CAD/CAM materials. The specimens were divided into five groups (n = 12) according to the type of materials: group S: monolithic zirconia-reinforced lithium disilicate; group ZI: bilayered zirconia framework with lithium disilicate; group ZE: bilayered zirconia framework with resin-infiltrated hybrid ceramic; group PI: bilayered polyetherketoneketone (PEKK) framework with lithium disilicate; group PE: bilayered PEKK framework with resin-infiltrated hybrid ceramic. The crown specimens were cemented on Cr-Co metal dies with a resin cement (Multilink N). The specimens were subjected to cyclic mechanical loading followed by load bearing testing. Data were analyzed using the Kruskal-Wallis and Mann-Whitney U tests (α = 0.05). The monolithic crowns in group S (1930 ± 452.18 N) presented significantly higher load bearing capacity than those of the other groups (P < 0.05). This was followed by group ZI (1165.41 ± 264.04 N). The remaining groups demonstrated comparable results. Failure types were more frequent in all zirconia specimens that included veneering ceramic. Monolithic zirconia-reinforced lithium disilicate CAD/CAM ceramics showed superior load bearing capacity compared with all other bilayered counterparts. All CAD/CAM materials tested remarkably exceeded the average occlusal force in the posterior region.