Improvements in the Static/Dynamic Strength of Porcelain Fused to Metal Dental Crowns with Surface Protrusions Produced by Selective Laser Melting

Abstract

Porcelain fused to metal dental crowns (PFMDC) are widely used in dental applications. Although the dental crowns are usually produced by the conventional casting method, additive manufacturing (AM) has recently gained an increased interest in dentistry due to its easy and rapid fabrication. Additive manufacturing is also a very advantageous method in patient-specific dental designs. In addition, through this method, it is possible to obtain products with geometries that cannot be obtained by classical methods. It is important to increase the lifetime of products in dental applications for lower costs and improved patient psychology. By increasing the strength of metal?ceramic interfaces, the total strength of dental crowns can be increased. For that reason, metal crowns with different numbers of protrusions and different locations on their surface edges were designed and produced by the selective laser melting method which is one of the additive manufacturing methods. These crowns were tested under both static and dynamic loading conditions and they mechanical performance was compared with the crowns produced by conventional methods. It was found that the crowns, which had different numbers of protrusions and different locations on the surface edge, showed more resistance under both static and dynamic load conditions. It was found that a metal substructure with dense protrusions that was produced at a thickness of 0.3 mm showed the highest strength under both static and dynamic loads.