Presented by Dr Rinu Sharma 1st year PG resident Department of Prosthodontics & Maxillofacial Prosthetics

CONTENTS
Introduction to ceramic History of Dental ceramic Basic constituents of ceramic Molecular structure & Composition of Dental ceramic Classification of Dental ceramic Properties of Dental Ceramic Conclusion Reference

Ceramic
An inorganic compound with nonmetallic properties typically composed of metallic (semi metallic) and nonmetallic elements.

The word ceramic is derived from the Greek word keramos that translates to mean, burnt earth. or fired material. Since they are made by shaping and firing a nonmetallic mineral at a high temperature.

It came from the ancient art of fabricating Pottery where mostly clay was fired to form a hard, brittle object . Pottery is the foremost ceramic.

History of Ceramics

Chinese are credited with development of porcelains as early as 1000 AD. Germans were able to produce material akin to chinese stone ware which was an improvement over porous & crude earthenware.

Around 1717, dEntrecolles ,a jesuit priest integrated himself with chinese potters to learn the porcelain manufacturing process. Other materials during 18th century were (1) human teeth, (2) animal teeth carved to the size and shape of human teeth, (3) ivory Animal teeth were unstable toward the corrosive agents in saliva, and elephant ivory and bone contained pores that easily stained. Hippopotamus ivory appears to have been more desirable than other esthetic dental substitutes.

 John

Greenwood carved teeth from hippopotamus ivory for at least one of the four sets of complete dentures he fabricated for George Washington.

In 1808, individually formed porcelain teeth that contained embedded platinum pins were introduced in Paris by Giuseppangelo Fonzi. Fonzi called these teeth terrametallic incorruptibles and their esthetic and mechanical versatility provided a major advance in prosthetic dentistry.

Although probably not involving feldspathic porcelains, In 1723, Pierre Fauchard was credited with recognizing the potential of porcelain enamels and initiating research with porcelains to imitate color of teeth and gingival tissues. Approximately 1774, (Parisian apothecary Alexis Duchateau, with assistance of a Parisian dentist Nicholas Dubois de Chemant ) , made the first successful porcelain dentures.

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These were replacement of the stained and malodorous ivory prostheses of Duchateau himself. They referred the material as mineral paste.

Chemant, then continued to improvise porcelain formulations & was awarded both French & British patents. He then fabricated porcelain dentures as part of his practice.
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Porcelains were realized through developments that ranged from the formulations of Elias Wildman in 1838 to vacuum firing in 1949. In 1885 ,Logan resolved the retention problem encountered between porcelain crowns and posts that were commonly made of wood by fusing the porcelain to a platinum post (termed a Richmond crown).

These platinum post crowns represented the first innovative use of a metal-ceramic system since platinum pin denture teeth fabricated by Fonzi 79 years earlier.

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By combining burnished platinum foil as a substructure with the high, controlled heat of a gas furnace, Dr. Charles Land was capable of introducing the first fused feldspathic porcelain inlays and crowns in 1886. These crowns exhibited excellent aesthetics, but the low flexural strength of porcelain resulted in a high incidence of failures. The all-porcelain crown system, despite its esthetic advantages, failed to gain widespread popularity until the introduction of alumina as a reinforcing phase in dental porcelain.
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In 1950s with the addition of leucite to porcelain formulations ,elevated the coefficient of thermal expansion to allow their fusion to certain gold alloys to form complete crowns and fixed partial dentures. Refinements in metal-ceramic systems dominated dental ceramics research during the past 35 years that resulted in improved alloys, porcelain-metal bonding, and porcelains.

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In 1980, the introduction of a shrink-free all-ceramic crown system and a castable glass-ceramic crown system has provided additional flexibility for achieving esthetics results. This introduced advanced ceramics with innovative processing methods, and stimulated a renewed interest in all-ceramic prostheses.

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Ceramic
Three essential constituents of Ceramic clay are Feldspar, quartz and kaolinite.

Feldspar Feldspars are naturally occurring crystalline rocks which have an internal, crystalline structure. When glass cools slowly, crystals form which is a process known as devitrification.
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Feldspar cooled over a period of millions of years. There are twelve naturally-occurring feldspars. Their formulas are similar and can be inferred from the three formulas provided here.

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Feldspars melt into a glass-like consistency and flow like a thick liquid at high temperatures. Too much feldspar are unsuitable as potters clay since objects made from it would simply melt into a puddle instead of maintaining its shape. Potters clays contain no more than 15% feldspar, and porcelain clays may contain up to 25%

Where as some glazes contain 100% feldspar, since the purpose of glaze is to melt and flow over the surface
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Feldspars melt at 1150 C. Feldspathic glass surrounds refractory clay particles and fills the pores between them.

Due to fluxes, feldspathic glasses bind to refractory particle surfaces which help bind the ceramic body together. The more feldspathic glass a ceramic body contains, the denser the fired body will be.

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Quartz

Quartz is pure, crystalline silica.

Silica in crystalline quartz is not combined with flux molecules and does not melt.
The quartz particles remain separate, un-melted, and dispersed throughout the glassy phase produced by the melting feldspar.
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The alkaline metal ions (fluxes) from feldspar encourages bonding of outer layers of refractory quartz particles to the surrounding feldspathic glass matrix Quartz melts at 1713 C

Most dental ceramic work is done between 850C and 1100 C.

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Kaolinite It is known as kaolin (China Clay). Kaolinite (Al2O3 2SiO2 2H2O) is found in nature. Kaolin is a hydrated aluminum silicate. Kaolinite has a crystalline structure. It acts as binder to increase mouldability of unfired porcelain. But because it is opaque,it is added in very small quantity if at all in dental ceramics.(Claus 1980, Phillips 1982)
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Thus, most important materials in potters clay are feldspar, quartz, and kaolinite. The proportions of these minerals determine ceramic characteristics.

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Earthenware
Earthenware vessels were probably the first form of pottery made over 14,000 years ago. Earthenware clay contains little feldspathic glass. It fires at low temperature & is porous.

Eg. Red clay flowerpots. -The red color comes from iron oxide which acts like a flux to
lower the clays fusing temperature.
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Stoneware

Stoneware is a hard, strong and vitrified ware which fires above 1200 C. It has low porosity.

- Contains clay & small amount of hard stone called flint. Eg. Modern dinnerware -There is more feldspathic glass that binds alumina and silica together.
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Domestic Porcelain
- Domestic porcelain is made from China Clay. - The large amount of glass in the mix reduces porosity to nearly zero, and produces a very dense, hard, and translucent glassy body .

BUT, - Porcelain clay is prone to slumping since there is less refractory material for support . The glass wants to flow at high temperature . Thus, The firing temperature must be precisely controlled in order to fully vitrify the glass.
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Dental Porcelain
In the early 1900's, when dental porcelain was first formulated, it had the same general composition as domestic porcelain.

Even small quantities of kaolin in the mixture cause porcelain to lack translucency hence later, little or no kaolin was left in porcelains chosen for dental use.
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Thus, The first ceramics used in dentistry in the late eighteenth century were porcelains, which were made from a highly refined & fired white clay. The term porcelain however is said to have been coined by Marco Polo in the 13th century from the term porcellana ,Italian name for the cowrie shell. Polo referred it to describe Chinese porcelain to fellow Europeans because of the shell's thinness, translucency, hardness, and strength.
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Thus,
Porcelain : Refers to those ceramic materials initially derived from combination of Quartz ,Kaolin & Feldspar sintered at high temperature. Dental porcelain : Are made up of an amorphous glass matrix & at least one crystalline phase. Dental ceramics : Term that encompasses to all types of ceramic dental products. Everything from denture teeth to all ceramic restoratives to metal ceramic porcelains are labeled as dental ceramics.
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Dental ceramic
An inorganic compound with nonmetallic properties typically consisting of oxygen and one or more metallic or semi metallic elements (e.g., aluminum, calcium, lithium, magnesium, potassium, silicon, sodium, tin, titanium, and zirconium) that is formulated to produce the whole or part of a ceramic based dental prosthesis.

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Molecular structure of Ceramics

Most ceramics are made from compounds of a metal and a non-metal. They contain a mixture of covalent and ionic bonding, the proportions of which determine the mechanical properties

Ceramics are crystalline, but their crystal structures are often more complex than metals.
Ceramics involve covalent bonding, but the molecular structures are three-dimensional and complex compared to polymers.

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As a result ceramics cannot undergo atomic like metals or chain realignment like polymers. They are not capable of changing shape without fracturing, unless they are heated to considerably higher temperatures. This is why we can only form ceramic objects by mechanically grinding or by heating them until they become plastic.
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Dental ceramics are actually fired twice. The first time they are fired until all the ingredients are fused together at so high a temperature that the material becomes liquid. This liquid is then cooled rapidly, making it a solid glass.

The glass is crushed to a powder, technically called a frit

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This powder becomes the basis for the additions necessary to make the various special purpose dental ceramics. The powder is mixed with water to form a formable paste for dental restoration. This is then fired a second time, until the softening temperature of the glass is reached. At this point the glass powder particles start to soften on their outside surfaces and bond together at the contact points. This is a process called sintering. Thus dental porcelains are nothing but, sintered glass.
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So, what is a glass?

Glass is defined as a material where the loosely arranged mixture of atoms found in the liquid state has been kept down to a temperature low enough that the substance has the mechanical properties of a solid . Glass is shortly defined as supercooled liquid Theoretically any material can be made into a glass if it can be cooled quickly enough

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If this liquid is cooled normally, the atoms go back to their positions in a regular crystal structure and the metal crystals reform.

The atoms have no time to form a crystal structure, and remain in their random liquid positions

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The easiest glasses to form are made from the oxides of small multivalent atoms such as silicon, boron, germanium or phosphorus. The most common glasses are based on Silica (SiO2) which is the most common mineral on the surface of the earth.

The dental ceramic we use is also a glass made mainly from silica.

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The atom arrangement in its structure consists of two covalently bonded atoms, two oxygen to one of silicon.

Silicon has four electrons in its outer shell, oxygen has six, so that the resulting structure has each oxygen atom bonded to two silicon atoms, and each silicon atom bonded to four oxygen are double bonds.

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This is the basic geometric unit of the resulting structure, a pyramidal shape called a tetrahedron.
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If all the pyramids are joined at regular intervals and spaces, there will be a crystal structure lattice, and the resulting material is a crystalline compound . If the pyramids are joined at irregular intervals and spaces, as would happen if molten silica was rapidly cooled, the compound is a silica glass.
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In the diagrams below a triangle represents one silica pyramid

Regular bonded structure of tetrahedra a crystalline material

Irregular bonded structure of tetrahedra a glass

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Thus, Basic structure of ceramics

Its basic structure is similar to that of glass. It therefore consists of a three dimensional network of silica (silica tetrahedra). Pure glass melts at too high a temperature for dental use. Adding certain chemicals lowers the melting temperature by disrupting the silica network.

The glass obtains porcelain like qualities when the silica network is broken by alkalies like sodium and potassium.
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This also lowers the fusion temperature.These chemicals are therefore known as glass modifiers or fluxes.
Other substances which act like glass modifiers are alumina (Al203) and boric oxide (B203) Adding certain opacifiers reduces the transparency and completes the transformation of glass to dental ceramic.

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Manufacturing process (Feldspathic porcelain)

In recent years are made mainly with potash feldspar (K20.AL20.SiO2) and small additions of quartz (SiO2). The ground ingredients are carefully mixed together.

Alkali metal carbonates are added as fluxes

Heated to 1200 deg C

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the feldspar decomposes to form a glassy phase with an amorphous structure & crystalline phase consisting of leucite
Rapidly quenched in water

small shattered fragments are obtained, called a Frit.

Ball milled to obtain particular size

Coloring pigments are added to obtain the delicate shades necessary to mimic natural teeth.

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Thus formed porcelain has 2 phases

- Glass phase

- Crystalline phase leucite

- high thermal expansion - high strength

- brittleness
- translucency - high surface tension

Most of the chemical reaction takes place during the manufacture. During subsequent firing in the dental laboratory, the porcelain powder simply fuses together to form the desired restoration.
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Constituents of ceramic
Feldspar Basic glass former Kaolin Binder Quartz Filler Alumina Glass former and Flux Alkalis Glass modifiers Color pigments Modifies color Opacifiers Reduces transparency

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A typical dental ceramic will contain about 50-70% silica; 10-20% alumina; 4-10% sodium oxide, 8-10% potassium oxide 1 or 2 % calcium oxide.

There will also be smaller amounts of many other metal oxides.

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Aluminum oxide
Aluminum oxide (Al2O3) exists in two separate forms within clay and porcelain bodies.

When chemically combined with other feldspar constituents, aluminum oxide acts as a stabilizer . Aluminum atoms bond with silicon via a shared oxygen atom and are an integral part of the amorphous silicon matrix. In this form, it doesnt affect glass transparency

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But it is also added as a separate constituent in the form of kaolinite which because of large amounts of flux contained in feldspars, melts into a glass. The by-product left over when the kaolinite melts is a precipitate of pure crystalline aluminum oxide called alumina. Alumina crystals remain un-melted and are scattered throughout the glass melt. In this form, aluminum oxide causes glass to become opaque
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Silica

Silicon dioxide(SiO2), like alumina, exists in two separate forms within clay and porcelain bodies. When chemically combined with flux and aluminum oxide, silica exists as a molecular component in the amorphous melted glass gel.

In this form, it is called a glass former. Silica also exists as un-melted crystalline, quartz particles scattered throughout the glass melt. This is part of the refractory substructure which supports clay and porcelain bodies.

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Glass Modifiers

Alkalies such as sodium, potassium and calcium are glass modifiers. They interrupt the oxygen silicon bond forming linear chains of silica. This ease of movement is responsible for increased fluidity & lower softening temperature. They also increase the Thermal expansion However, too high a concentration of glass modifiers is not desired because - It reduces the chemical durability of ceramic. - It may cause the glass to devitrify during firing.
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Boric oxide (H203) also works as glass modifier . It forms its own glass network (also called lattice) interspersed between the silica network thus interrupting rigid silica network. Water also acts as glass modifier(not an intentional addition), the hydronium ion H3O+ can replace Sodium or other Metal ions.

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Opacifiers

Since pure feldspathic porcelain is quite colorless, opacifiers are added to increase its opacity in order to simulate natural teeth. Oxides of zirconium, cerium, titanium and tin are commonly used opacifiers.

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Color Modifiers

Color modifiers are required to adjust the shades of the dental ceramic. Various metallic oxides provide a variety of color, e.g. titanium oxide (yellowish brown), nickel oxide (brown), copper oxide (green), manganese oxide (lavender), cobalt oxide (blue), etc.

These powders are blended together with un pigmented powdered frit to provide the proper hue & chroma.
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Other Specialized Porcelain Powders

Shoulder porcelain A ceramic that is formulated to be sintered at the cervical area of metal ceramic crown to produce an esthetic and fracture resistant butt joint margin. These powders are fired (sintered) at temperatures higher than regular body porcelains.

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Opaquer Porcelains
It is a specialized type of porcelain which is made opaque by additon of insoluble oxides (opacifiers). These oxides have high refractive indices so they can scatter the light. It serves three major function : - wets metal surface to establish metal-ceramic bond. - masks the color of metal substructure - initiates development of the selected shade. Some color modifiers can be added to achieve internal shade modification.

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Body porcelain
They vary in the amount & type of metallic oxide pigments

Dentin porcelain It is major determinant of shade of any porcelain restoration. May contain 5 10 % free alumina. Extends till Incisal / occlusal one third. Enamel porcelain It is more translucent than dentin. Shades are usually in violet to gray range. It is predominantly alumina free.

Translucent It imparts depth & natural enamel like translucency without altering body shade.

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Stains
They are porcelain powders containing a high concentration of metallic oxides (color modifiers) which give them greater fluidity. Stains are created by mixing metallic oxides with low fusion point glasses below the maturing temperature of enamel & dentin porcelains.

Stains are used to provide individual color variation in the finished restoration
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Glazes
They are generally colorless low fusing porcelains that posses considerable fluidity at high temperature.

They fill small porosities & irregularities & when fired help to create the external sheen or glassy appearance of natural tooth.
They contain a lot of glass modifiers which also makes them somewhat less chemically durable.
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Reinforced Core Porcelains

These are specialized porcelains containing a high concentration of a reinforcing material which make them stronger than regular feldspathic porcelains. They are used to create a strong inner core which imparts strength to the ceramic. Variety of reinforcing materials are currently being used . They include: - Alumina (alumina reinforced porcelain) - Magnesia based (spinell) - Leucite (leucite reinforced porcelain).

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Classification of Ceramics

Ceramics can be classified as According to firing temperature According to its micro structure According to processing methods According to type of restoration

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According to respective fusing temperature range.

High fusing 1300" C (2372" F) Medium fusing 1100"-1300" C (201 3"-2072" F) Low fusing 850"-1100" C (1562"-2012" F) Ultra-low fusing <850 C (1562" F)

Kenneth J. Anusavice, Phillips Science of Dental Materials .Dental Ceramics :667,1 1th edn

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The medium-fusing and high-fusing types are used for the production of denture teeth. The low-fusing and ultralow-fusing porcelains are used for crown and bridge construction. Low firing temperatures reduces the risk for growth of the metal oxide.

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Potential advantages of ultralow-fusing ceramics are the reduction in sintering times, decrease in sag deformation of FPD framework less thermal degradation of ceramic firing ovens and less wear of opposing enamel surfaces

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According to microstructure, Predominantly Glass Particle filled Glass Polycrystalline

J. Robert Kelly, Dental ceramics What is this stuff anyway?. JADA, Vol. 139,Sept. 2008

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Predominantly glass

Dental ceramics that best mimic the optical properties of enamel & dentin have a high glass content. Manufacturers use small amounts of filler particles to control optical effects such as color and opacity. eg. Alumino-silicates found in nature, also known as feldspars. Feldspars are modified in various ways to create the glass used in dentistry
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These materials were first used in dentistry to make porcelain denture teeth. More recently, powder-liquid versions were made for the specific veneering of aluminabased core systems, eg, In-Ceram

These materials have a low coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) around 8 x 10-6/K.
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Particle filled glass

Manufacturers add filler particles to the base glass composition to improve mechanical properties, such as strength, thermal expansion and contraction behavior.

These fillers usually are crystalline, but they can also be particles of high-melting glasses that are stable at the firing temperatures of the ceramic.

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Eg. ceramics containing high concentrations of lithium disilicate crystals is an example of a particle filled glass-ceramic

The filler can be : - Alumina ( In-ceram Alumina)

- Magnesium aluminate (In-ceram Spinell) - Mixture of 70 % alumina & 30 percent zirconia ( In-ceram Zirconia)
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Polycrystalline

Polycrystalline ceramics contain no glass. All of the atoms are packed into regular crystalline arrays through which it is much more difficult to drive a crack than it is in atoms of less dense and irregular network found in glasses. Hence, polycrystalline ceramics generally are much tougher and stronger than glassbased ceramics

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Well-fitting prostheses made from polycrystalline ceramics were not practical before the availability of computer-aided manufacturing because of high firing temperature & resulting shrinkage. However 15-20 % shrinkage can be compensated by constructing an over sized ceramic pattern which will shrink during sintering, resulting into desired size to accurately fit the prepared tooth.

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Predominantly glass-based ceramics are lightly filled with colorants and opacifiers to mimic natural esthetics and are the weakest ceramics. Glasses containing 35 to 70 percent filler particles for strength . It can be Moderately esthetic as full-thickness restorations, but generally are veneered. Completely polycrystalline ceramics (no glass), which are used to create strong substructures and frameworks via computer-aided design/ computer-aided manufacturing processes, always are veneered.
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According to processing methods Powder / Liquid glass based systems Machinable or pressable blocks of glass based systems CAD/CAM or Slurry/Die processed mostly crystalline( alumina or Zirconia ) systems

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Powder/liquid, with or without crystalline fillers

These are the porcelains that are made for veneering cores made from either metal, alumina or zirconia, but can be used for porcelain veneers on either a refractory die or platinum foil technique. They are ideally suited for anterior teeth, especially when bonding to enamel.They are not the ideal material for inlays and onlays because they are much weaker than densely manufactured blocks of glass based ceramics.

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Manufactured blocks, with or without crystalline fillers

These materials are ideally suited for inlay and onlay restorations, anterior crowns and veneers, and possibly bicuspid crowns.
They have to be bonded and can be used full contour as there are polychromatic machinable versions available.

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CAD/CAM or slurry/diegenerated mostly or allcrystalline

Alumina materials in this classification are (Procera),which is solid sintered alumina, and In-Ceram,which is glass infiltrated. These materials work well for cores for single crowns that are veneered with a powder/liquid glass-based material.

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According to type of restoration

HIGH LEUCITE (OPTEC) FELDSPAR LOW LEUCITE

LEUCITE (EMPRESS) CAST GLASS CERAMIC All ceramic MICA (DICOR) ALUMINA (PJC) ALUMINA Restorations SLIP CAST (INCERAM)

CORE
Porcelain fused to metal (Metal Ceramic)

MAGNESIA
MAGNESIA MOLDED (CERESTORE)
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FELDSPAR

Properties of dental ceramic

Depends on Their composition Microstructure Flaw population - fabrication defect - surface cracks Nature and amount of reinforcing material

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General properties of feldspathic porcelain

Strength Porcelain is brittle and tends to fracture. The strength of porcelain is usually measured in terms of flexure strength (or modulus of rupture). Flexure strength It is a combination of compressive, tensile as well as shear strength. ( 75.8 MPa - 141.1 MPa).
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Compressive strength (350 - 550 MPa) Porcelain has good compressive strength . Tensile strength (20 - 60 MPa) Tensile strength is low. When porcelain is placed under tension, it can result in brittle fractures. Shear strength (110 MPa) It is low and is due to the lack of ductility caused by the complex structure of porcelain.

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Why low tensile strength ?

The presence of the covalent bonds in porcelain should have produced much greater strength but it fails to have so. This was explained by,
Irwin (1957) Griffith (1921) and Orowan (1944, 1949, 1955).

- when a brittle material is subjected to tensile

stresses, specific crack formed in certain location were associated with greatly increased stress levels.

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Ceramics tend to have no mechanism for plastically deforming without fracture as do metals, cracks may propagate through a ceramic material at low average stress levels.

As the crack propagates through the material, the stress concentration is maintained at the crack tip unless the crack moves completely through the material or meets another crack, a pore, or a crystalline particle

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Thus,
Reducing the depth of surface flaws in the surface of a ceramic is one of the reasons that polishing and glazing of dental porcelain is so important. If porcelain is glazed there will be no microcracks or porosity in the surface region. The tensile stresses caused by bending are greatest in surface region & a crack is also most likely to start from same region. Hence, preventing crack on surfaces minimizes overall crack mechanism & improves strength.

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Factors affecting strength - Composition - Surface integrity Surface imperfections and porosities . - Firing procedure Inadequate firing and over firing weakens the structure.

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TYPE

FIRING ENVIRONMENT AIR

SURFACE CONDITION GROUND GLAZED

FLEXURAL STRENGTH (Mpa) 75.8 141.0

FELDSPATHIC PORCELAIN

AIR

VACUUM VACUUM ALUMINOUS PORCELAIN AIR

GROUND GLAZED GROUND

79.6 132.0 136.0

AIR

GLAZED

139.0

After being Glazed, the component will have more than doubled its flexural strength. Also depends on type of material.
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Modulus of Elasticity
Porcelain has high stiffness (69 GPa) and does not undergo plastic deformation.

Surface Hardness
Porcelain is much harder (460 KHN) than natural teeth. If a roughened surface contacts tooth enamel or dentin under high occlusal forces( which may occur because of bruxing/ premature occlusal contacts, and/or inadequate occlusal adjustments), It can cause wear of opposing natural teeth.

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Wear Resistance
They are more resistant to wear than natural teeth. The ceramics should exhibit uniform surface so that asperities such as large crystalline inclusions do not project out from the surface. Enamel wear or abrasion can be minimized by different ways, like Use of ultra low fusing ceramics. Polishing functional ceramic surfaces periodically.

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Thermal Properties
Thermal conductivity
Porcelain has low thermal conductivity. Metal atoms transfer their outermost electrons to the non metallic atoms & thereby stabilize their highly mobile electrons. Thus, they do not readily conduct electricity or heat. Coefficient of thermal expansion & contraction

It depends on the type of material & firing temperature . eg. Leucite can be incorporated modify thermal expansion & contraction behavior. Mismatch in this coefficient of adjacent materials ,results in compressive & tensile stresses.
Dimensional Stability Fired porcelain is dimensionally stable.

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Chemical stability
It is insoluble and impermeable to oral fluids. Also it is resistant to most solvents.

However, hydrofluoric acid causes etching of the porcelain surface typically by selective leeching of sodium ions thereby disrupting the silica network. A source of this is APF (acidulated phosphate fluoride 1.23%) and stannous fluoride 8% which are used as topical fluorides.

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When glazed feldspathic porcelain is contacted by these fluorides, a surface roughness is produced in 4 mins. If contacts for about 300 mins a generalized severe degradation of porcelain surface has occurred which leads to staining, plaque accumulation & further breakdown of structure. So, we should avoid the use of APF gels when ceramic restoration is present or the surface of restoration should be protected with petroleum jelly.
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Hydrofluoric acid is however used to etch the porcelain surface to improve the bonding with resin cement.

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Esthetic Properties
The esthetic qualities of porcelain are excellent.

It is able to match adjacent tooth structure in translucence, color and intensity. The color stability is also excellent. It can retain its color and gloss for years.

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Certain esthetic concerns have been raised when the dense opaquer layer is visible through thin crowns (in metal ceramic and Inceram crowns). However, this has been referred to an error in technique. The dentist must ensure an adequate depth of preparation to ensure sufficient thickness of dentin/enamel veneer to mask the opaquer. The technician on the other hand should ensure correct thickness of the opaquer.
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Biocompatibility
Excellent compatibility with oral tissues. The dental ceramics in use today have relatively low firing temperatures, but usually greater than 900C and are resistant to dissolution in the mouth. Formulations have been developed with firing temperatures as low as 640C, however, these materials tend to show considerable surface degradation in the oral environment and hence are not so much useful.

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Conclusion
Thus, A closer understanding of the dynamics of the material with respect to design of the restoration and the intended use is required to enable these restorations to perform productively. The new generation of ceramic materials present interesting options, both in terms of material selection and in terms of fabrication techniques.

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References

Kenneth J. Anusavice, Phillips Science of Dental Materials . Dental Ceramics,11th edition Robert G. Craig, Restorative Dental Materials. Ceramics,11th edition. John F. Mc Cabe, Applied Dental Materials. Ceramics and Porcelain Fused to Metal, 9th edition. W. Patrick Naylor, Introduction to Metal Ceramic Technology. J. Robert Kelly, Dental ceramics What is this stuff anyway?. JADA, Vol. 139,Sept. 2008 Edward A. Mc laren, Ceramics in dentistry Part I Arvind Shenoy & Nina Shenoy, Dental ceramics: An update, J Conserv Dent. 2010 Oct-Dec; 13(4): 195203. J. Robert Kelly, Ceramics in dentistry : historical roots & current perspectives, Journal or prosthetic dentistry, Vol 75, 1

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THANK YOU
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