Effect of polishing on cyclic fatigue strength of CAD/CAM ceramics.

The biaxial flexural strength and cyclic fatigue biaxial flexural strength of CAD/CAM ceramics polished with #220, 400, 600 and 1000 diamond pads were measured in an effort to determine the effect of surface roughness on fatigue behavior of dental ceramics. The surface roughness was improved after polishing with a smaller diamond grain pad. The flexural strengths of the specimens polished with #220, 400, 600 and 1000 diamond pad were 75.2, 76.6, 82.2, and 83.3 MPa, respectively; the fatigue flexural strength of those with #220, 400, 600 and 1000 were 53.0, 58.1, 60.0, and 61.5 MPa, respectively. Both the flexural and fatigue flexural strengths increased with improvement of surface profile. These results suggest the importance of polishing of dental ceramics for not only the static strength but also the cyclic fatigue strength.