Flexural properties of three lithium disilicate materials: An in vitro evaluation

OBJECTIVE: The goal of this study was to investigate the flexural strength, Young’s modulus and Weibull modulus of two heat-pressed and one CAD/CAM processed lithium disilicate (LD) ceramics. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A total of 45 specimens with dimensions 16 × 4 × 1.2 ± 0.2 mm were fabricated out of three LD ceramics. For heat-pressed LD specimens, acrylate polymer blocks were cut and divided into two groups (n = 15 per group); a GC LiSi Press LD group (LP) and an IPS e.max Press group (EP). Specimens for each group were pressed corresponding to the manufacturer’s recommendations. For the CAD-CAM Group (EC), IPS e.max CAD blocks were cut to obtain specimens (n = 15) to the desired dimensions. Flexural strength and Young’s modulus tests were executed using a universal testing machine. A one-way ANOVA and post-hoc Tuckey’s tests were applied to analyze the results (p ≤ 0.05). RESULTS: Regarding flexural strength, the EC group showed higher statistically substantial difference than the EP and LP groups (p = 0.001), while there was no pronounced difference between the EP and LP groups (p = 0.065). For Young’s modulus test, all the three tested groups had no statistically substantial difference (p = 0.798). CONCLUSION: The IPS e.max CAD group had higher mechanical performance than the IPS e.max Press and GC LiSi Press groups.