Journal of Dental Medicine

Statement of Problem: Ceramic restorations are popular because they can provide the most natural replacement for teeth. However, the brittleness of ceramics is a primary disadvantage. There are various methods for strengthening ceramics such as metal framework, ceramic cores, and surface strengthening mechanisms through glazing, work hardening and ion exchange.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of polish on flexural strength of feldspathic porcelain and to compare it with overglaze and autoglaze.

Materials and Methods: In this experimental study, one brand of feldspathic porcelain (colorlogic, Ceramco) was used and forty bars (25×6×3 mm) were prepared according to ISO 6872 and ADA No. 69. The specimens were randomly divided into four groups: overglazed, auto glazed, fine polish and coarse polish (clinic polish). Flexural strength of each specimen was determined by three point bending test (Universal Testing Machine, Zwick 1494, Germany). Collected data was analyzed by ANOVA and post-hoc test with P<0.05 as the limit of significance.

Results: A significant difference was observed among the studied groups (P<0.0001). According to post-hoc test, flexural strength in overglaze and fine polish group were significantly stronger than clinic polish and autoglaze group (P<0.001). Although the mean value for overglazed group was higher than fine polish group, this was not statistically significant (P=0.9). Also no statistical difference was seen between autoglazed and coarse polish group (P=0.2).

Conclusion: Based on the findings of this study, flexural strength achieved by fine polish (used in this study) can compete with overglazing the feldespathic porcelains. It also can be concluded that a final finishing procedure that involves fine polishing may be preferred to simple staining followed by self-glazing.

  Background and Aims: Porcelain restorations are often ground for clinical adjustment and this removes the surface glaze layer and introduces flaws that can grow in wet environments due to stress-corrosion, reduce the strength of porcelain and limit restoration lifetime. The aim of this study was to introduce some surface treatment methods to control the flaws of ceramic restorations external surface and improve their strength.

  Materials and Methods: 40 feldspathic discs were prepared and divided into 4 groups (n=10): not indented (group 1) and others indented by vickers with 29.4 N and received different treatments: no treatment (group 2), polished (group 3) and polished-silane-resin (group 4). Biaxial flexural strength of discs was tested after water storage. Data were analyzed using one-way ANOVA .

  Results: The mean flexural strength of specimens in group 1 (134.49±12.60), 2 (94.81±15.41), 3 (89.20±16.22) and 4 (80.67±12.01) were measured. Group 1 (not indented) revealed significantly higher strength (P<0.001) than that of indented groups (2, 3 and 4) . There was no significant difference between group 2 (no treatment) and 3 or 4 (treated) and between treatment methods (3 and 4) (P=0.136).

  Conclusion: The strength of porcelains is dependent on presence of cracks. With the limitations of this study, none of the treatment methods could strengthen the cracked ceramic.