Abstract
Dental porcelain for use in crown restorations has many advantageous characteristics, such as good esthetic outcome, biocompatibility, wear resistance, and chemical stability. However, the hardness of dental porcelain may exceed that of human enamel, and therefore wear of antagonist natural teeth is expected. By the way, the upper specimen was made by grinding of human enamel. The shape of upper specimen was newly proposed. It was decided in consideration of the cusp of tooth. This study was performed to examine the wear occurring when a lower specimen of dental porcelain was slid under human enamel using two types of dental porcelain. The wear characteristics of human enamel in combination with both dental porcelains were examined by microscopy. The results clarified the influence of dental porcelain on the wear volumes of both human enamel and the dental porcelain itself.
