Analysis of correlation between optical and microtomography measurements of cementation space in CAD-CAM ceramic crowns.

Abstract Statement of problem Identical computer-aided design (CAD) parameters may be used to mill a variety of ceramic materials for computer-aided design and computer-aided manufacture (CAD-CAM) crowns. Whether milled crown spacing matches the designed parameters when more than a single evaluation method is applied is unknown. Purpose The purpose of this in vitro study was to correlate the stereomicroscope and the microcomputer tomography (μCT) 2-dimensional analysis of the cementation space with the replica technique in assessing 3 different ceramic materials. Material and methods The specimens were milled in lithium disilicate, resin nanoceramic, and zirconia (n=30). The cement space was measured at the marginal, axial, and occlusal regions. One hundred twenty measurements of each material were used to correlate the methodologies. Data were statistically evaluated with 2-way repeated measures ANOVA and the Tukey test (α=.05). The Pearson correlation coefficient was used for each region for both methodologies (μCT and optical microscopy) separately. Results For the μCT analysis, no differences were observed (P>.05) among the materials, but the axial region showed a positive correlation with the marginal (r=0.957) and occlusal regions (r=0.349); the same was observed between the occlusal and marginal regions (r=0.338). However, for stereomicroscope evaluation, resin nanoceramic and zirconia present similar cementation space (P=960), both being different from lithium disilicate (P Conclusions The measurements of the scanned replicas were accurate when thinner sections were under measurement. Although the same space parameters were set in the CAD software, definitive internal dimensions varied among the milled crowns.