Porcelain-titanium bonding with a newly introduced, commercially available system.

Background: Titanium is widely used in implant dentistry because of its high strength, toughness, biocompatibility, and low cost. The fabrication of complex substructures is now possible with a number of automated systems. One major obstacle to broad clinical acceptance of porcelain-titanium prostheses is the poor ceramic-metal bonding.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to compare titanium bonding with a traditional bonder and a newly introduced titanium bonding system. Bonding was characterized by the delamination crack initiation stress per ISO 9693:2009.

Methods: Grade 4 titanium strips were laser machined to meet ISO 9693:2009 standards. Bonding and firing of opaque porcelain was accomplished by using a traditional titanium ceramic system and a newly introduced bonding system. Variables tested besides the bonding system included the length of the porcelain block (7 mm, 8 mm, 9 mm); the thickness of the block (1.0 mm, 1.6 mm); testing the specimens 1 mm off-center; and reusing the strips. Crack initiation stresses were calculated and compared by ANOVA and the Duncan test (α=.05).

Results: The newly introduced commercially available system gave the strongest bond (41.82 ±5.7 MPa), followed by the 9 mm specimens (32.2 ±3.9 MPa), then a statistically similar group of the 8 mm, 7 mm, and 1.6 mm thick specimens with new Ti (approximately 23 MPa), and last a similar group with 7 mm, 8 mm, and 1 mm offset loading on reused Ti (approximately 16 MPa). The lower limit under ISO 9693:2009 was 23 MPa.

Conclusions: The newly introduced commercially available system achieved much higher bond strengths than traditional titanium systems, even better than those for many high-gold alloys.