Effect of occlusal contact size on interfacial stresses and failure of a bonded ceramic: FEA and monotonic loading analyses

Objective This study investigated whether contact area (i.e. facet size) would influence the loads necessary for subsurface radial crack formation in porcelain specimens bonded to a dentin analog material. Methods Dental porcelain discs (0.5 mm, 1 mm, and 1.5 mm thick) were bonded to compliant bases simulating dentin, and loaded with either a 1 mm, 2 mm, or 3 mm diameter aluminum piston until fracture. Pop-in of the subsurface radial crack from the bonded interface was detected using the acoustic emission (AE) method. Pre-test and post-test finite element analysis (FEA) was used to model the experiment and to calculate subsurface failure stresses. Results There were significant differences in loads sustained before fracture according to both the ceramic thickness and the piston diameter (p < 0.05; ANOVA and post-hoc Scheffe). Failure loads were found to be proportional to the square of the porcelain thickness. For all thicknesses, significantly higher loads were sustained beneath the 3 mm piston than beneath the 1 mm piston. FEA calculated failure strengths for the 1 mm thick porcelain (calculated from experimental mean loads) differed significantly for loading with the 1 mm piston (168 MPa) or 3 mm piston (60 MPa). Conclusions It appears that both ceramic thickness and contact facet size may be clinically controlled to increase load-bearing ability of all-ceramic crowns. Single value strengths may not accurately model bonded dental ceramics; adjustments such as with Weibull scaling may improve accuracy. These results further suggest that small spherical indenters do not create clinically analogous contact conditions.