Ángela Moscote Research Seminar in Dentistry Fifth report

Short-Term Prospective Clinical Evaluation of Monolithic and Partially

Veneered Zirconia Single Crowns1

During the last decade, zirconia-based restorations have become increasingly

common in dentistry. Crowns made in this material can be whether monolithic or
partially veneered. The first ones are just the raw material with some improvements
that provide a better esthetic appearance, and the other ones, are zirconia crowns
with a veneer in the labial surface. Unfortunately, there are still problems related to
chipping of the veneer, even after the modifications made to the techniques used in
order to overcome these limitations.

Taking into account that these two types of zirconia single crowns have different
esthetic and mechanical properties, the aim of this study was to evaluate clinical
outcome for monolithic and partially veneered zirconia crowns on the basis of crown
survival and the incidence of complications.

In this cohort study, the sample consisted of 68 patients scheduled for single-crown
treatment at the Department of Prosthodontics of the Heidelberg University Hospital.
8 patients dropped out during the follow-up for different reasons, thus, only 60
participants were taken into account for the analysis. The dentist that treated each
patient decided whether to use partially veneered zirconia crowns (PZCs) or
monolithic zirconia crowns (MZCs), depending on the area where the tooth was.

After the teeth were prepared, polyether impressions were taken in order to design
the crowns with a special software. Both MZCs and PZCs were properly stained,
and then, the veneer of the labial surface was built up manually for each PZC. Every
crown was tried in clinically and adjusted, if necessary.

As soon as this process ended, standardized report forms were used baseline (at
crown cementation) and follow-up (at 6 months and then yearly thereafter) data
collection. Report forms included information such as abutments and crowns
biological, technical or other complications, chipping fractures (graded as minor or
major depending on the damage) and the esthetic rating by both the dentist and the
participant on a numerical scale from 0 to 10.

The follow-up lasted 3 years and the study groups were analyzed by use of
descriptive statistics. Survival for each “crown failure”, “first complication”, and
“ceramic failure” were calculated by use of the Kaplan-Meier method, for MZCs and
PZCs.

Researchers found out that both types of zirconia single crowns had good survival
percentages and only few complications occurred during the three years of study,

1
WOLFGANG BOMICKE, PETER RAMMELSBERG, THOMAS STOBER, MARC SCHMITTER. Short- Term Prospective Clinical
Evaluation of Monolithic and Partially Veneered Zirconia Single Crowns. Journal of Esthetic and Restorative Dentistry
2017;29(1):22-30
Ángela Moscote Research Seminar in Dentistry Fifth report

and one of the most common was still chipping. Additionally, they found good
esthetic rates (over 8.0) for both groups, but the best ones were for PZCs. All these
good results, must be verified for longer follow-up periods.