Fatigue survival and damage modes of lithium disilicate and resin nanoceramic crowns

Polymer-based composite materials have been proposed as an alternative for single unit restorations, due to their resilient and shock absorbing behavior, in contrast to the brittleness of ceramic materials that could result in failure by fracture. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the fatigue strength and damage modes of monolithic posterior resin nanoceramic and lithium disilicate glass ceramic crowns. METHODOLOGY: Twenty-six resin nanoceramic (RNC) and lithium disilicate glass ceramic (LD) 2 mm monolithic crowns (n=13) were cemented on composite resin replicas of a prepared tooth and subjected to cyclic load with lithium disilicate indenters for 2 million cycles. Specimens and indenters were inspected every 500,000 cycles and suspended when presenting fractures or debonding. Surviving specimens were embedded in epoxy resin, polished and subsurface damage was analyzed. Specimens presenting fractures or severe subsurface damage were considered as failures. Survival data was subjected to Fisher's exact test; damage modes were subjected to Mann-Whitney test (p<0.05). RESULTS: There were no debonding, cohesive or catastrophic failures. Considering subsurface damage, 53.8% of RNC and 46.2% of LD crowns survived the fatigue test, presenting no statistical difference. Chief damage modes were radial cracks for RNC and inner cone cracks for LD, presenting no statistical difference. CONCLUSIONS: The results suggest that if debonding issues can be resolved, resin nanoceramic figures can be an alternative to posterior crowns. Although distinct, damage modes revealed potential to cause bulk fracture in both glass ceramic and resin nanoceramic crowns.