Objective: Wear of natural dentition opposed by dental porcelains may lead to serious consequences. The use of less abrasive porcelains that offer excellent esthetics yet minimize the wear of the opposing dentition would be a valuable addition to the dentist's selection of materials. This study attempted to determine in-vitro wear characteristics of enamel opposing polished titanium porcelain, and to compare these findings with Type III gold. Methods: A total of 25 enamel abraders were fabricated by attaching enamel to metal rods with composite resin. Five samples each of 4 titanium porcelains and 5 samples of Type III gold control were used as the test specimens. The accelerated wear of the abrader and test samples were created using a motor driven wear machine in natural saliva. Enamel abraders were run a total of 10,000 cycles per sample under a constant load of 1 kg. The amount of wear on the enamel abraders was measured by light microscopy at a magnification of 64X. The before and after dimensions of the enamel rods were superimposed and the vertical loss of substance measured. Results: The mean and standard deviation of the amount of enamel abrader loss were as follows: Type III gold alloy (Olympia, J.F. Jelenko) 0.016mm, 0.012mm; Duceratin (Degussa Dental) 0.036mm, 0.082mm; Duceratin Plus (Degussa Dental) 0.029mm, 0.024mm; Triceram (Esprident) 0.047mm, 0.034mm; Noritake TI-22 (Noritake) 0.164mm, 0.047mm. One way ANOVA revealed only Noritake TI-22 had a statistically significant difference in enamel wear to the Type III gold alloy (p<.0001). Conclusions: Several of the titanium veneering porcelains tested exhibited similar wear of enamel as did the Type III gold alloy.

Supported by NobelBiocare/University of Michigan Center for Excellence

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