Objectives: To evaluate the marginal and internal fit of CAD/CAM-generated frameworks for 4-unit, fixed dental prostheses (FDPs) from zirconia (Z) and cobalt-chromium alloy (C) made with conventional (CI) and digital impressions (DI).
Materials and methods: A titanium model was digitized with an intraoral scanner (DI, LAVA™ C.O.S.; 3M ESPE; Seefeld, Germany; n = 12). Additionally, 12 conventional impressions were taken, and referring plaster casts were digitized by a laboratory-scanner (CI, LAVA™ Scan ST; 3M ESPE; n = 12). Frameworks were fabricated (3M ESPE) from cobalt-chromium (DI-C, n = 12; CI-C, n = 12) and zirconia (DI-Z, n = 12; CI-Z, n = 12) from the same datasets. A replica technique was applied to measure the accuracy. The Mann-Whitney U statistical test was applied to detect statistical differences between each material and methodology groups in terms of fit.
Results: Frameworks from DI-C (median 19.07 μm) showed significantly better marginal fit than CI-C (median 64.64 μm, p < 0.001). Frameworks from DI-Z (median 52.50 μm) showed significantly better marginal fit than CI-Z (median 72.94 μm, p = 0.001). Additionally, frameworks from DI-C showed a significantly better marginal fit than DI-Z (p < 0.001).
Conclusions: CI and DI led to a clinically acceptable marginal fit of 4-unit FDPs from cobalt-chromium and zirconia. DI leads to better marginal fit of the cobalt-chromium frameworks; however, no effect on zirconia was found.
Clinical relevance: The results indicate that DI is suitable for fabricating 4-unit, cobalt-chromium and zirconia frameworks with regard to fit requirements.
Keywords: CAD/CAM; Cobalt-chromium alloy; Digital impression; Fixed dental prostheses; Intraoral scanner; Marginal fit; Zirconia.