Objectives: This study evaluated the survival of Procera AllCeram full-coverage crowns placed in a dental student clinic. Methods: 169 all-ceramic CAD/CAM Procera AllCeram (NobelBiocare) crowns were placed in 131 patients (mean age 50.2y), who were randomly selected from patients assigned to LSU School of Dentistry Junior Student Clinic and who fulfilled the inclusion criteria. All clinical steps were performed by inexperienced, unbiased clinicians (junior dental students) as part of their requirements for Undergraduate Fixed Prosthodontics under the supervision of an instructor. Procera AllCeram crowns were fabricated with CAD/CAM technology from densely-sintered aluminum-oxide ceramic and veneered with feldspathic porcelain. All crowns were cemented with Panavia (Kuraray) resin cement. Patients were recalled after a mean observation time of 26 months (SD 8.4). At recall, various parameters were recorded to evaluate clinical success of the crowns. Results: None of the restorations exhibited complete failure such as loss of crown or complete fracture of the crown/ceramic coping. Of the 169 crowns, one abutment tooth revealed recurrent marginal caries and 6 crowns had ceramic fractures limited to the veneering porcelain. If these restorations were considered failure, Kaplan-Meier estimate of survival at 38 months was 89.1% (95% CI: (78.4%, 100%)). Cox regression was used to test for associations of age and gender with survival. Right-censoring of the survival times was taken into account. Neither age nor gender was associated with survival time (p=0.7 and 0.89, respectively). Conclusion: Procera AllCeram full-coverage crowns revealed high success rates even when used by inexperienced, unbiased clinicians (3rd-year dental students).

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