The effect of thermomechanical aging on the retention of a conometric system in a chewing simulator.

PURPOSE: To evaluate the retention force of a novel conometric system after thermomechanical aging. In addition, the conometric system's retention force was compared with that of the cemented implant-retained crowns. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Two systems to retain implant crowns were tested in this study: a conometric system and a cement-retained system. Forty-eight zirconia crowns were fabricated using computer-aided design and computer-aided manufacturing technology. Twenty-four zirconia crowns were cemented onto conometric caps with resin-modified glass ionomer cement, which were then connected with abutments. These specimens were divided into three groups, and each group was subjected to the pull-out test. A-control group: 12 specimens directly subjected to pull-out test; A-aged group: 12 specimens subjected to thermomechanical aging followed by pull-out test; A-repeat group: After the pull-out, the specimens in the aging group (A-aged) were reconnected, and the pull-out test was repeated once more. The remaining 24 zirconia crowns were cemented on standard abutments with zinc phosphate cement, and two groups were formed. C-control group: 12 specimens directly subjected to the pull-out test; C-aged group: 12 specimens subjected to thermomechanical aging followed by pull-out. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) was used to evaluate the surfaces of caps and abutments. To analyze the data, repeated measures, one-way ANOVA, and Bonferroni tests were used (p < 0.05). RESULTS: The mean retention force value of the A-control group was 148.22 ± 16.37 N. The highest mean retention force value was measured in the A-aged group (204.93 ± 51.67 N), and the lowest mean retention force value was seen in the A-repeated group (77.02 ± 21.48 N). Thermomechanical aging had a significant influence (p < 0.05) on both systems. No significant differences in retention force were found between the thermomechanical aged groups of both systems (p > 0.05). SEM analysis revealed that aging had an impact on the surface of the conometric system's caps and abutments. CONCLUSIONS: The retention force of the conometric system increased significantly following thermomechanical aging. No crown separation occurred during the thermomechanical aging of the conometric system. There was no significant difference in the retention of the conometric and cemented systems after thermomechanical aging.

The influence of the pure metal components of four different casting alloys on the electrochemical properties of the alloys.

OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of the pure metal components of the four different casting alloys on the corrosion behaviors of these alloys tested. METHODS: Potentiodynamic polarization tests were carried out on four different types of casting alloys and their pure metals at 37 degrees C in an artificial saliva solution. The ions released from the alloys into the solutions during the polarization test were also determined quantitatively using inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). RESULTS: Ni-Cr (M1) and Co-Cr (M2) alloys had a more homogenous structure than palladium based (M3) and gold based (M4) alloys in terms of the pitting potentials of the casting alloys and those of the pure metals composing the alloys. The total ion concentration released from M3 and M4 was less than from M1 and M2. This may be because M3 and M4 alloys contained noble metals. It was also found that the noble metals in the M3 and M4 samples decreased the current density in the anodic branch of the potentiodynamic polarization curves. In other words, noble metals contributed positively to dental materials. SIGNIFICANCE: Corrosion resistance of the casting alloys can be affected by the pure metals they are composed of. Au and Pd based noble alloys dissolved less than Ni-Cr and Co-Cr based alloys.