Fracture Strength of All-ceramic Restorations After

Fracture strength of monolithic and bilayered LAVA and e. max lower molar crowns after load cycling was measured and compared. The study included three groups (n = 8) from LAVA zirconia and three groups from e. max lithium disilicate to compare influences of different layers, thicknesses and manufacturing techniques. Prefabricated anatomically designed crowns were cemented to dies made from Z 100 composite resin using Rely X Luting Plus resin modified glass ionomer cement. Cemented crowns were stored at 37° C for 24 hours then cyclic loaded to test fatigue properties. The crowns were loaded to 200,000 cycles at 25N at a rate of 40 cycles / minute to simulate oral function. Subsequently, fracture properties for each group were measured using an Instron Universal Testing machine. Microscopic evaluation of the surface of fatigued samples did not reveal microcracks at the end of 50,000 cycles but minor wear facets were observed at the site of contact from the steatite ball antagonist. Crowns from LAVA bilayered groups showed step by step fractures while crowns from all other groups fractured as a single event as observed by the high speed camera. Zirconia bilayered crowns showed the highest loads to fracture while lithium disilicate monolithic crowns showed the lowest, within the limitations of the study. The study also showed that monolithic zirconia crowns of 0.6mm thickness resulted in relatively high magnitude for forces at fracture.