In vitro comparison of physical characteristics of milled versus printed zirconia discs

PurposeThe purpose of this study was to compare the dimensional accuracy, translucency, and biaxial flexural strength of milled zirconia (MZ) versus 3D-printed zirconia (PZ) discs.Materials & MethodsA circular disc measuring 14.0 mm in diameter and 1.20 mm in thickness was designed using computer-aided design (CAD) software. The resulting standard tessellation language (STL) file was used both as a control and to fabricate 36 zirconia (3Y-TZP) disc specimens (n = 36): 18 were milled (group MZ) and 18 were 3D-printed (group PZ). The diameter and thickness of each disc were measured using a digital caliper. Translucency was evaluated using a calibrated dental colorimeter. The flexural strength was determined using the piston-on-three-ball biaxial flexure test. All measurements were done by one blinded examiner. The statistical significance level was set to alpha = 0.05.ResultsThe MZ discs had significantly more accurate dimensions than the PZ discs in both diameter and thickness when compared to the control CAD software-designed disc. The MZ discs exhibited significantly higher translucency (translucency parameter (TP) = 16.95 +/- 0.36 vs. 9.24 +/- 1.98) and biaxial flexural strength (996.16 +/- 137.37 MPa vs. 845.75 +/- 266.16 MPa) than the PZ discs. Finally, MZ possessed a significantly higher Weibull modulus relative to PZ.ConclusionsThe results showed that the milled specimens achieved better dimensional accuracy and were more translucent, stronger, and less prone to failure than printed specimens.