Influence of the accuracy of abutment tooth preparation on the marginal adaptation of Co-Cr alloy copings fabricated with a selective laser sintering technology

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of present study is to examine the correlation between the accuracy of abutment preparation and the marginal adaptation of metal coping. With this view, this study compared the correlations regard to the three different manufacturing methods of selective laser sintering technique, milling and casting. Materials and methods: Two master models were made in a different way. First model with deep chamfer margin was prepared directly by a general clinician and the second model was designed by 3-D designing software program with the same abutment preparation principle and produced by computer aided manufacturing. 12 Co-Cr alloy copings were produced respectively with three different method; SLS system, CAD/CAM milling and conventional lost wax technique from each master model. The total 72 copings fully sit on the master model were stereoscopically evaluated at 40 points along the entire circumferential margin. Results: Significant differences in the absolute marginal discrepancies of CoCr copings from SLS system (P=.0231) and casting method (P<.0001) were shown between hand preparation model and computer designed model. However, no significant difference was found between the two model groups from milling method (P=.9962). Conclusion: Within the limitation of this study, the effect of the accuracy of abutment preparation on the marginal adaptation of Co-Cr coping is statistically significant in SLS system and casting group. The copings produced by SLS system exhibited the lowest marginal discrepancies among all groups, and the marginal gap of this method group was influenced by the accuracy of the abutment preparation. (J Korean Acad Prosthodont 2015;53:337-44)