Failure analysis of dental prosthesis

Abstract

To accurately assess the real causes of failure of dental prostheses, the assemblies, the materials, and their surfaces should be analyzed to highlight the exact morphological and compositional aspects, which is also the aim of this chapter. The experimental demonstration of the main causes and types of failure of dental prostheses consists of analysis of removed dental implants, fixed, single, and multitooth prostheses. These were collected from dental laboratories after their failure. Within the presented analyses prospects related to the cross-section sample microstructure or prosthetic surface (where the failure appeared due to surface defects) were targeted. Restorative dental materials include representatives of the main classes of metallic materials, polymers, ceramics, and composites. Most of the restorations are described by their physical, chemical, and mechanical parameters resulted from laboratory tests. Improvements of these characteristics may seem attractive for laboratory studies, but the real test of the materials’ performance is done in the mouth cavity environment. Although, at this point, the dental materials became of high performance, many types of dental prostheses fail fast or after a certain period of time, smaller than the estimated one.