Cutting performance of diamond burs for zirconia

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to evaluate cutting performance of zirconia using rotary instruments with diamond burs. Zirconia disc (0.5 thick) was cut using one of two diamond burs; Mary Dia (MD), and GC (GC), attached with one of two rotary cutting instruments; air-turbine handpiece (AT); Ti-Max X600, 380,000 rpm and micromoter handpiece (MM); Ti-Max X95L, 200,000 rpm (NSK, Kanuma, Japan). The zirconia specimens were cut vertically at crosshead speed of 5 mm/min. The cutting force was measured at real time. In the AT groups, the cutting force in GC was higher than that in MD. However, there was no difference in cutting force between AT and MM. It was suggested that bur selection should influence on cutting performance of zirconia.