The Effect of Different Veneering Techniques and Aging on Color Parameters of Y-TZP Zirconia Ceramics

Abstract

Core veneered zirconia all ceramic restorations gained a lot of interest for the past few years. This is due to combining the strength of zirconia cores coupled with the high esthetic qualities of the veneering ceramic. Zirconia is considered the material of choice as a ceramic framework due to its unique qualities including, strength, transformation toughening, white color and biocompatibility. However, due to the opaque nature of the polycrystalline zirconia, a more translucent ceramic material must be veneered on the zirconia framework to combine both the strength of the zirconia core and the esthetic nature of the veneering ceramic. However, different veneering techniques are available nowadays, each of which uses a material with different composition, translucency and reflectivity. Thus, the final color of zirconia based all ceramic restorations is affected by the veneering technique used. This study was designed to evaluate and compare the color parameters and translucency of different veneering techniques in comparison to a standard Vitapan classic A2 shade tab. Moreover, the effect of low temperature degradation on color and translucency parameters was also evaluated for the different veneering techniques.