Additively Manufactured Zirconia Ceramic Cantilever Resin-Bonded Fixed Dental Prostheses With Customized Intaglio Microstructures for Replacing a Missing Lateral Incisor.

OBJECTIVE

To describe the clinical application of an additively-manufacturing (AM)-fabricated zirconia cantilever resin-bonded fixed dental prostheses (RBFDPs) incorporating digitally designed intaglio microstructures for replacement of a missing maxillary lateral incisor.

CLINICAL CONSIDERATIONS: A 24-year-old woman with a missing maxillary right lateral incisor received cantilever zirconia RBFDPs supported by the maxillary central incisor. The restoration was fabricated using advanced customized jetting (ACJ), an A M technique that enabled predefined triangular microstructures to be incorporated directly into the intaglio surface of the zirconia framework. The restoration was bonded using an MDP-containing primer and a dual-cured cement. The seating position after cementation was digitally evaluated by using the tooth preparation dynamic depth monitoring (TP-DDM) function on the intraoral scan software, demonstrating positional deviations of < 100 μm.

CONCLUSIONS

AM enabled controlled micromechanical features to be integrated directly into the intaglio surface of a zirconia cantilever RBFDPs. The combination of AM-fabricated microstructures and MDP-mediated bonding provides a clinically feasible strategy for combining micromechanical and chemical retention at the zirconia-resin interface.

CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE: AM permits retentive surface features to be digitally designed and fabricated as an integral part of the zirconia framework. Combining these micromechanical features with MDP-mediated chemical bonding may provide a reproducible strategy for improving zirconia-resin bonding while reducing reliance on additional postfabrication surface-modification procedures.