Long-term survival of monolithic tooth-supported lithium disilicate crowns fabricated using a chairside approach: 15-year results

OBJECTIVES: To investigate the clinical performance of chairside fabricated tooth-supported posterior single crowns from lithium disilicate ceramic. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Thirty-four crowns (IPS e.max CAD, Ivoclar Vivadent, Schaan, Liechtenstein) were inserted between 2006 and 2007 and again evaluated after 15 years. Survival and success rates were calculated according to Kaplan–Meier, and the quality of the crowns was evaluated by using modified United States Public Health (USPHS) criteria. RESULTS: Twenty-two crowns were available for recall; six patients were defined as dropouts. The mean observation period was 15.2 years (± 0.2). Six failures occurred (1 technical/5 biological) resulting in a survival rate of 80.1%. The success rate was 64.2%. The roughness of the crowns increased (p = 0.021) and the majority of adhesive gaps were discolored (p = 0.001) in comparison to baseline. The color, tooth, and crown integrity remained stable over the follow-up period (p ≥ 0.317). CONCLUSION: The fabrication of tooth-supported lithium disilicate crowns using a chairside approach yielded acceptable long-term survival and success rates. Due to discoloration, the long-term use of dual-cure self-adhesive resin cements might result in unpleasing esthetic results. CLINICAL RELEVANCE: The performance of posterior lithium disilicate single crowns revealed excellent to good clinical quality and an acceptable number of events after 15 years of clinical service.