The Marginal Fit of CAD/CAM Monolithic Ceramic and Metal-Ceramic Crowns

Purpose Studies on the marginal fit of monolithic restorations are limited. This study aimed to evaluate the marginal fit among monolithic zirconia, monolithic lithium disilicate, and conventional metal-ceramic crowns and to compare the buccal and lingual surfaces. Materials and Methods Thirty standardized stainless steel master dies were fabricated (height: 5 mm; convergence: 6 degrees; chamfer: 1 mm). The dies were randomly divided into three groups (n = 10 each) according to the material used to construct the crowns: group 1 (LM): Lava Plus; group 2 (DM): IPS e.max CAD; and group 3 (MC): Metal-ceramic. The crowns were luted in a standard manner onto the stainless steel master dies using conventional glass ionomer cement. The vertical marginal gap of the restorations was evaluated under a scanning electron microscope (SEM) at 500x magnification. One-way ANOVA, Tukey ' s HSD test, and Student's paired t test were used to assess the marginal discrepancy among the groups. The cutoff value for statistical significance was set at alpha = 0.05. Results Significant differences among the three groups (p = 0.0001) were recorded. DM group showed the lowest discrepancies (27.95 +/- 9.37 mu m). Significant differences were observed for the buccal (p = 0.007) and lingual (p = 0.0001) surfaces between the DM group and the other groups. Conclusions The accuracy of fit achieved for the three groups was within the range of clinical acceptance. IPS e.max CAD showed the lowest discrepancies.