Superior Stabilized Zirconium Compacts Preparation with Minimum Thickness That Is Suitable for Fabrication of Dental Crowns and Bridges

Resumen

The stabilized zirconia, particularly 3Y-TZP is used for fabrication of dental crowns and bridges through supply of it as compacts suitable to be shaped by CAD/CAM machines and then sintering via special sintering program provided the company source. Among the best celebrated product of this type is that of GC company that is found in the local and global market. Although the sintered stabilized Zirconia has high mechanical properties; the design of the dental crowns and bridges has complex shapes and thin edges that weaken the mechanical properties. For that reason, the dentist still experiences the chipping or the breakup of the thin edges because of accumulated stresses during mastication, when occasionally dropped, or during cementation by the dentist. Accordingly, the need is raised for the development of the stabilized Zirconia to improve its mechanical properties. In this work, the compressive strength of the stabilized zirconia has been improved noticeably and strain at maximum load was also improved, which give a lesser opportunity for chipping and breakup that experienced by the clinicians especially at thin edges. The properties have been achieved via adding of the low-cost boron oxide although the utilized zirconia powder was not in the nanoscale and high-cost additions was not used, also, the traditional compaction technique has been used. The prepared materials were characterized via measurements of density, crystalline phases via XRD, compressive strength, the strain at maximum load, the microstructure at the fracture surface, in addition to the surface morphology via SEM.