Fracture resistance of direct inlay-retained adhesive bridges: effect of pontic material and occlusal morphology.

This study evaluated the effect of a) pontic materials and b) occlusal morphologies on the fracture resistance of fi ber-reinforced composite (FRC) inlay-retained fixed dental prostheses (FDP). Inlay-retained FRC FPDs (N=45, n=9) were constructed using a) resin composite (deep anatomy), b) natural tooth, c) acrylic denture tooth, d) porcelain denture tooth and e) resin composite (shallow anatomy), as pontic materials. In addition resin composite beams were fabricated (N=30, n=10): i) 'circular', ii) 'elliptic I', and iii) 'elliptic II'. There was no significant difference between the fracture resistance of Groups a, b, c, and d (598, 543, 539, 509 N, respectively) (p>0.05) (One-way ANOVA). Fracture resistance of Group e (1,186 N) was significantly higher than those of other groups (p<0.05) (Tukey's test). No significant difference was found between Group i (1,750 N) and Group ii (1,790 N). Not the pontic material but the occlusal morphology affects the fracture resistance of FRC FDPs.