Abstract
PURPOSE. To evaluate the influence of cyclic loading on phase transformation of zirconia abutments and to compare the effectiveness of three different quantitative ageing assessment techniques. MATERIALS AND METHODS. Thirty two Y-TZP prostheses fabricated from two brands, InCoris ZI and Ceramill ZI, were cemented to titanium bases and equally divided into two subgroups (n=8): control group without any treatment and aged group with cyclic loading between 20 N and 98 N for 100,000 cycles at 4 Hz in distilled water at 37 degrees C. The tetragonal-to-monoclinic phase transformation was assessed by (i) conventional x-ray diffraction (XRD), (ii) micro x-ray diffraction (mu XRD), and (iii) micro-Raman spectroscopy. The monoclinic-phase fractions (M%) were compared by two-way ANOVA. RESULTS. InCods Zi presented significantly higher M% than Ceramill Zi in both control and aged groups (P<.001). Both materials exhibited significant phase transformation with monoclinicphase of 1 to 3% more in aged groups than controls for all three assessment techniques. The comparable M% was quantified by both pXRD and XRD. The highest M% was assessed with micro-Raman. CONCLUSION. Cyclic loading produced significant phase transformation in tested Y-TZP prostheses. The micro-Raman spectroscopy could be used as an alternative to XRD and mu XRD.
