Mechanical and clinical behavior of zirconia-based monolithic prosthesis: Literature review

Abstract

Dental prosthesis produced with metal or ceramic infrastructure show high rates of chipping of the glass-ceramic veneer. Thus, monolithic prosthetic restorations produced with only one material were developed in order to reduce these failures. Zirconia-based ceramics had their optical properties modified to produce monolithic restorations. Therefore, the objective of this study was to verify, through a literature review, the mechanical and clinical behavior of zirconia-based monolithic dental prostheses. PubMed/Medline database was used to search for manuscripts (2010 to 2017) using the following keywords: zirconia, monolithic and prosthesis. Thirteen in vitro studies and five clinical studies were selected. Studies have shown that zirconia-based monolithic prostheses exhibit high resistance to fracture, fatigue and chipping. To support the chewing load and achieve similar mechanical behavior as the metal-ceramic system, restorations should be produced with a minimum thickness of 0.7 mm. Clinical studies report low failure rates for this prosthetic treatment. Zirconia-based monolithic dental prostheses present mechanical and clinical behavior favorable for the rehabilitation of the posterior region.