Ceramics Flashcards
Examples of application of ceramics in dentistry
- Indirect restorations
- Crowns
- Denture teeth
- Inlays
- Onlays
- Veneers
- Implant components
- Fixed partial prostheses
Definition of a ceramic
- Inorganic, non-metallic materials which are compounds formed between metallic elements and non-metallic elements
- For example, silicon-oxygen in silicate glasses
- Can be crystalline or non-crystalline (glassy or amorphous)
Bonding that occurs in ceramics
-Generally ionic and covalently bonded materials
Porcelain v Ceramic
- Porcelain is a subset of ceramics
- Porcelain is a ceramic but not all ceramics are porcelains
- Porcelain refers to a specific composition of kaolin (hydrated aluminosilicate), quartz and feldspar (calcium, sodium and potassium aluminosilicates) exposed to high temperatures during formation
Types of ceramics used in dentistry and the common ones nowadays
-Silicate glasses
Entirely non-crystalline
Used as glazes only
-Porcelains
Predominantly non-crystalline
Used for veneers
Can also use glass ceramics
-Glass ceramics (mixture of crystalline and non-crystalline phases)
Used for inlays only as crowns and anterior bridges
-Highly crystalline materials (polycrystalline- used for crowns, bridges and implant materials)
Glass ceramics and highly crystalline materials most common nowadays
Properties of Dental Ceramics
- Do not readily react with most liquids, gases, alkalis and weak acids
- Remain stable over long periods of time
- Can exhibit strength but their fracture toughness is much lower than metals
- High hardness (can causes wear in opposing dentition)
- Optically favourable for cosmetic applications
Why are ceramics getting increasingly used nowadays rather than all metal/metal ceramics
- Aesthetics
- Cost and NHS (gold, palladium and platinum are very expensive)
Describe the structure of the glassy phase of dental ceramic
Components of structure and names
- Glass= disordered structure
- Network of silicon and oxygen is drawn in a fairly random way
- Silicon oxygen (silicate) characterized by a tetrahedra (SiO4)
- Silicone known as the network former
- Alkali cations such as potassium or sodium can be added to disrupt the silicate chains to modify sintering temperatures or properties such as thermal expansion coefficient
- Known as network modifiers
- Atoms such as tituanium, aluminium, zirconium can act as an intermediate by both network forming and modifying actions
- Both ionic and covalent bonds
Difference in structure and energy required between glassy and crystalline phases using silicon and oxygen as an example.
Disordered structure is glassy, amorphous state
Crystalline structure known as quartz is highly ordered with repeating unit cells
Greater energy is required to disrupt ordered systems- so increasing the crystallinity of a dental ceramic enhances the mechanical properties
What happens to a ceramic when you increase the crystallinity of it
-As you increase the crystallinity of a material,
You increase the energy required to disrupt the system
Increase the fracture toughness
Increase the strength
Increase the opacity
Increase the shrinkage after sintering
Explain the brittle nature of ceramics
-Theoretically ceramics real strength is massive
But
- Inheritently weakened by any defects within it
- The bigger the defect, the greater strength reduction
Brittle- when you load a material and it fails with very little deformation up to that point
- Very little plastic deformation occurs at failure
- Failure occurs rapidly
Clinical significance of fracture toughness of ceramics
-If a ceramic crown does not fit, so you use a bur to alter the shape or size, you are adding defects into the structure which greatly reduces its strength
Fracture Toughness definition and ceramics ft
- Measure of the resistance to crack growth under a state of tensile stress
- Ceramics have a low to moderate fracture toughness
- Brittle material
- Less time for cracks to propagate
Tensile Strength of ceramics
- Theoretical tensile strength (amount of energy to pull atoms apart) of ceramics is extremely high
- But ceramics are never defect free, and these defects determine the actual strength of the material
- Strength varies with specimen size, shape, loading rate, surface prep and environment
- Dental ceramics restorations fracture under tensile loading
Feldspathic Ceramics (Porcelain) definition
- Mainly glassy with a minor crystalline component
- Optically the best
- Feldpar KAlSi3O8 is the main component
- When feldspar melts it forms leucite and molten glass
- Upon cooling, the separate structure of leucite and glass remains
- Flexural strength of 60-80MPa
- Closely matches shade translucency and luster of natural dentition
- But low strength and prone to mechanical failure
-Addition of other crystal phases can increase the mechanical performance
How glassy ceramics are made and examples
- Crystalline reinforcement of porcelains
- Leading to mechanical toughening
- Distribute higher strength crystals throughout the glassy matrix results in the crack having to go around the crystals in order to propagate
- Crystal phase must have compatibility with the glass to be effective (If not, then the crystal will serve as a defect itself)
-Crystal phases used to reinforce the ceramic
- Leucite Reinforced Ceramics
- Lithium disilicates
Issue with increasing crystallinity in ceramics
- Increase in shrinkage during sintering, which affects dimensional accuracy during fabrication
- Decrease transparency
What properties of the crystal will determine the mechanical and optical properties
- Crystal size, type and amount
- Important to match refractive index of the crystal and amorphous phase for translucency
Different manufacturing methods of ceramics
- Sintering
- Heat-pressing
- Slip-casting (archaic so rarely used)
- CADCAM
Sintered All-Ceramic Restorations explanation of procedure and common examples
- Most aesthetic and oldest ceramics were sintered
- Final object is formed by first pressing the constituents in powdered form under pressure into a mold, and then firing the pressed object at high temperatures
- Often shaped on a die
- Final ceramics are typically veneered in a translucent porcelain and glazed (heat treated) to improve aesthetic
-Examples of crystalline reinforced sintered dental ceramics include:
Alumina-based (up to 40% crystalllinity)
Leucite Reinforced Felspathic
Sintered Alumina-Based Materials properties, requirements and problems
- Alumina is aluminium oxide, Al2O3
- Added in 40-50% by weight
- Excellent bond with the glass phase
- Coefficient of thermal expansion between glass and alumina phases should be closely matched
- Alumina ceramic is formed by dry-pressing and then sintering
- Shrinkage of 10-20% can occur during sintering
- Flexural strength of 600mPa
Shrinkage during sintering leads to dimensional inaccuracies
Opacity of the core requires veneering with glassy materials to improve aesthetics
Rarely used system nowadays
Competitor is leucite reinforced ceramics
Sintered Leucite-Reinforced Materials structure and properties
- Potassium, aluminium, silicone and oxygen K(AlSi2O6)
- Increased leucite content over traditional feldspathic porcelain which increases the flexural strength to over 100MPa
- Leucite crystals have up to a 3-fold larger thermal coefficient of expansion compared to the glassy phase
- During cooling, the leucite contracts more than the glass resulting in residual stresses. These resuldual stresses act as a crack deflecting mechanism and increase the strength
-Highly aesthetic- has been used extensively for anterior crowns and inlays
Heat pressing of all-ceramic restorations
- Simultaneous application of both heat and pressure to form and sinter the ceramic
- Employs a lost wax process
- Contrast with sintering where constituent powders are first pressed and then fired
- Pressures in range of 0.3-0.4mPa for 10-20 minutes
- Temperature depends on the ceramics used