Comparison of Fracture Toughness of All-Ceramic and Metal–Ceramic Cement Retained Implant Crowns: An In Vitro Study

To evaluate the fracture toughness of cement-retained implant-supported metal–ceramic molar crown with that of all-ceramic crowns, fabricated using IPS Empress 2 and yttria-stabilized zirconia copings. An dental implant and abutment was embedded in a clear polymethyl methacrylate model. A wax pattern reproducing the anatomy and dimension of a mandibular molar was made using inlay wax. Copings were made from the manufacturers guidelines for zirconia, metal ceramic and empress crown, in total of 21 copings, which were built for the crowns with metal layering ceramics specified by the manufacturers. The polymethylmethacrylate block-implant abutment complex was mounted on universal testing machine, and a static continuos vertical compressive load with a crosshead speed of 0.5 mm/min was applied. The breaking load and the peak load (in kilo Newtons) were recorded. The fractures for group I (zirconia–ceramic) and group II (metal–ceramic) occurred on the mesio-buccal aspect of the crowns involving the veneered ceramic layer while the catastrophic/bulk fracture was not observed. The mean value of breaking load for zirconia–ceramic, metal–ceramic and IPS-empress 2 was 3.4335, 3.071 and 1.0673 kN respectively. The mean value of peak load for zirconia–ceramic, metal–ceramic and IPS-empress 2 was 4.7365, 3.2757 and 1.566 kN respectively. It can be concluded that the zirconia–ceramic crown with the fracture toughness of 4.7365 ± 2.2676 kN has sufficient strength to allow clinical testing of these crowns as an alternative for metal–ceramic crowns (3.2757 ± 0.4681 kN).