Fracture Resistance of Anterior Teeth Restored with Post-retained Ceramic Crown vs Ceramic Endocrowns.

Abstract

Aim: To compare the fracture resistance of anterior teeth restored with either glass fiber post (GFP) and conventional lithium disilicate (LDS) crowns or endocrowns made of LDS or hybrid ceramics.

Materials and methods: A total of 21 central incisors with 2-mm ferrule and 1-mm shoulder finish line were applied in this investigation. The teeth were divided into three main groups (n = 7) according to the type of restoration used: PC glass fiber post (GFP) and e-max crown, EE (LDS endocrown), and VE (Vita-Enamic endocrown). Mechanical cyclic loading was conducted in a chewing simulator to simulate 6 months of clinical use. Fracture resistance and failure mode were assessed; further examination of fractured specimens was done with scanning electron microscopy.

Results: Post-hoc Tukey's test was performed to investigate the pairwise differences in fracture resistance among the three groups, and the results were p = 0.0452 between PC and VE groups, which is significant statistically. In contrast, p = 0.0615 between PC and EE groups, which is not significantly different. Chi-square test was made to analyze the results of mode of failure among the three groups, and there was a significant difference; p-value = 0.0289.

Conclusion: The LDS endocrowns show fracture resistance similar to that of GFP-supported full coverage LDS crowns, with advantage of more restorable mode of fractures. Vita-Enamic endocrowns, despite having fracture resistance lower than other groups, showed fracture resistance higher than the physiologic load, with restorable fractures more than both LDS endocrowns and GFP LDS crowns.

Clinical significance: For dental practitioners, endocrowns in damaged anterior endodontically treated teeth provide similar fracture resistance to GFP and full crowns, with the advantage of more restorable fractures if occurred. How to cite this article: Mohamed AA, Badawy MBA, El-Kouedi AMY, et al. Fracture Resistance of Anterior Teeth Restored with Post-retained Ceramic Crown vs Ceramic Endocrowns. J Contemp Dent Pract 2024;25(11):1045-1051.