Effects of Different Thickness Combinations of Core and Veneer Ceramics on Optical Properties of CAD-CAM Glass-Ceramics

The goal of this study was to evaluate the effects of different core and veneer thicknesses on the translucency (T%), average light transmittance (T), translucency parameter (TP), contrast ratio (CR), and spectral reflectance (R) of glass-ceramics using a computer-aided design/computer-aided manufacturing (CAD-CAM) process. In all, 42 specimens (11mm × 11mm) were prepared and divided into six groups ( = 7 for each group). Core materials (IPS e.max CAD; IPS Empress CAD, LT A2 shade) of different thicknesses (0.8, 1.0, and 1.2mm) were fabricated. Each veneer material (thicknesses of 0.7, 0.5, and 0.3mm) was combined with its compatible core ceramic. Each core material was overlapped with its corresponding veneer material to obtain a 1.5-mm thickness by using three different combinations: (0.8