Journal of Dental Medicine

Background and Aim: By definition, pontic is an artificial replacement of missing tooth (teeth) which is essentially used to establish function and esthetics. In order to this fact that, pontic(s) is not completely the same as tooth (teeth) to be replaced, it may not be concern as a simple type of restoration to achieve the best result, it must be design from the esthetically and hygienically point of view as well as comfort, demand and tissue health of patient. The main purpose of this study is to investigate the pontic designs and their relationship to edentulous partial aras.

Materials and Methods: 73 pontics in 57 patients have been included in this cross-sectional study. These patients were under treatment in the department of prosthodontics. A primary cast was achieved from each patient and then the cross-sectional contour of edentulous ridge was depicted. For each patient the type of pontic design was derived from textbook standards and then compared with the design of actual verified Prosthesis at delivery. The shape of tissue surface of each denture was determined by a low viscous impression material. The result of each comparison was recorded in a chart data set.

Results: The most common pontic design was Modified ridge lap with frequency of 93.2%. The type of ridge was %45.2 normal, %19.2 class I, %8.2 class II and %27.4 class III, respectively. %72.6 of pontics tested have inappropriate design in tissue surface.

Conclusion: It seems that in a high percentage of cases the tissue surface contour of prescribed pontics in department of prosthodontics was incorrect and more attention must be paid to the education of students and technicians.

Background and Aims: The marginal integrity of fixed restorations always is a major matter of concern for dental clinicians. Any cause of distortion, including veneering processes, in the marginal integrity is supposed to be detrimental for long-term success of fixed dental prostheses. The aim of this in vitro study was to compare the marginal adaptation of two different full ceramic restoration systems (Zirkouzahu&Cercon) and possible changes in marginal integrity following the multiple veneering process.

Materials and Methods: Twelve all-ceramic crowns in the form of coping were fabricated on a pre-made standard metal die with finish line of shoulder preparation from two commercial systems: Cercon® and Zirkonzahn®. The specimens were not cemented. The Crown/Die discrepancy were measured by means of a precise stereo microscope (accuracy±0.1 μm), at various points (n=12) selected along circumferential margin of the restorations. Same procedure was accomplished after applying the veneering porcelain. The mean gap dimensions were calculated and data were analyzed by multivariate (b) test.

Results: Mean marginal gap dimensions before and after veneering porcelain firing cycles, for Cercon® were (59.67±13.46 µm) and (63.75±14.16 µm) and for Zirkonzahn® were (65.81±24.37 µm) and (64.74±21.94 µm), respectively. Hotelling trace Multivariate(b) test method showed that the rate of mismatching marginal integrity in two groups (Cercon® and Zirkonzahn®) had no significant difference before and after porcelain firing (P>0.05).

Conclusion: Within the limitation of this study, the marginal integrity of both systems were seems to be within the clinically acceptable standard dimension, i.e. 120μm.The marginal gap of both all-ceramic systems were not affected by veneering porcelain firing cycles.