Thesis & Dissertations

Purpose: to compare the translucency of 6 different types of ceramic material using three different thicknesses. Materials and Methods: Square shaped specimens were cut from different types of ceramics with variable translucencies (e.max CAD HT, e.max CAD LT, ultra-translucency zirconia, top-translucency zirconia, super-translucency zirconia and high-translucency zirconia). Total samples of 144 specimens were divided into 6 main groups according to material; each group was divided into 3 subgroups according to thickness used (0.4, 0.6 and 1 mm). Using spectrophotometer each specimen was tested three times against white and black background and the average was taken to calculate translucency parameter (TP). Results: Viewing the mean of translucency between studied groups, group EMHT (9.10±1.45) scored the highest TP followed by group EMLT (8.36±1.42) then group UTZ (6.66±2.49), TTZ (6.25±0.95), STZ (4.93±0.96) and HTZ (4.83±1.34) showed the lowest value. Each material showed difference in mean value in different thicknesses. At 0.4 mm thickness one-way ANOVA revealed no significant difference between EMHT and UTZ (P = 0.942). Conclusion: Glass ceramics showed higher TP values than crystalline based ceramics which means e.max is more translucent than zirconia. The thickness of the material has direct effect on its translucency. Ultra-translucency zirconia is the most recommended material to be used in conservative esthetic cases. Key words: IPS e.max, ultra-translucency zirconia, super-translucency zirconia, toptranslucency zirconia, high-translucency zirconia, translucency.