An in vitro trial on the effect of arch form on connector size requirements in long span anterior zirconia fixed dental prostheses

alexandrossfakianakis shared this article with you from Inoreader An in vitro trial on the effect of arch form on connector size requirements in long span anterior zirconia fixed dental prostheses via Journal of Prosthodontics Abstract Purpose To test the fracture resistance of maxillary canine to canine fixed partial denture with four missing incisors, with increasing anterior-cantilevers of the pontics and varying connector sizes. Material and Methods Two 3D-printed titanium alloy (Ti6Al4V) models mimicking a maxillary canine to canine fixed partial denture (FPD) with four pontics replacing the incisors were used as master models. Zirconia FPDs were digitally designed and milled with two different connector sizes (9 and 12 mm2) each with three different anterior cantilevers (7, 10, and 13 mm) accounting for 6 test groups. Seven samples were milled for each group generating a total of 42 samples. The Zi FPDs were cemented on the titanium model using resin modified glass ionomer cement and the model fixated to a variable angle vice. A sinusoidal cyclic wave form load from 50N to 280N was applied using a universal testing machine at a frequency of 30 cycles per second and a total of 5 million cycles. Results The results of Fisher's exact tests showed that the difference in the proportion of fractured versus non fractured fixed partial dentures was not statistically significant when comparing the 9 with the 12 mm2 connector size (p = 1.00), as well as when comparing the six test groups (p = 0.2338); on the other hand, it proved to be statistically significant when comparing the 7 mm cantilever with the 10 and 13 mm cantilevers combined (p = 0.0407) indicating that a 7 mm anterior spread of the pontics showed a significantly greater proportion of fixed partial dentures that fractured. Conclusions Fracture susceptibility was not a function of cantilever length in this testing configuration for anterior FPDs. Retainer crown thickness seems to be a more important parameter than connector size thickness. Based on the results, a smaller connector size (9 mm2) can be used to improve the esthetics of pontics in long span anterior FPDs. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved View on Web

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