Effect of airborne-particle abrasion and mechanico-thermal cycling on the flexural strength of glass ceramic fused to gold or cobalt-chromium alloy.

PURPOSE: To evaluate the effect of airborne-particle abrasion and mechanico-thermal cycling on the flexural strength of a ceramic fused to cobalt-chromium alloy or gold alloy.

MATERIALS AND

METHODS

Metallic bars (n = 120) were made (25 mm × 3 mm × 0.5 mm): 60 with gold alloy and 60 with Co-Cr. At the central area of the bars (8 mm × 3 mm), a layer of opaque ceramic and then two layers of glass ceramic (Vita VM13, Vita Zahnfabrick) were fired onto it (thickness: 1 mm). Ten specimens from each alloy group were randomly allocated to a surface treatment [(tungsten bur or air-particle abrasion (APA) with Al(2) O(3) at 10 mm or 20 mm away)] and mechanico-thermal cycling (no cycling or mechanically loaded 20,000 cycles; 10 N distilled water at 37°C and then thermocycled 3000 cycles; 5°C to 55°C, dwell time 30 seconds) combination. Those specimens that did not undergo mechanico-thermal cycling were stored in water (37°C) for 24 hours. Bond strength was measured using a three-point bend test, according to ISO 9693. After the flexural strength test, failure types were noted. The data were analyzed using three factor-ANOVA and Tukey's test (α= 0.05).

RESULTS

There were no significant differences between the flexural bond strength of gold and Co-Cr groups (42.64 ± 8.25 and 43.39 ± 10.89 MPa, respectively). APA 10 and 20 mm away surface treatment (45.86 ± 9.31 and 46.38 ± 8.89 MPa, respectively) had similar mean flexural strength values, and both had significantly higher bond strength than tungsten bur treatment (36.81 ± 7.60 MPa). Mechanico-thermal cycling decreased the mean flexural strength values significantly for all six alloy-surface treatment combinations tested when compared to the control groups. The failure type was adhesive in the metal/ceramic interface for specimens surface treated only with the tungsten bur, and mixed for specimens surface treated with APA 10 and 20 mm.

CONCLUSIONS

Considering the levels adopted in this study, the alloy did not affect the bond strength; APA with Al(2) O(3) at 10 and 20 mm improved the flexural bond strength between ceramics and alloys used, and the mechanico-thermal cycling of metal-ceramic specimens resulted in a decrease of bond strength.