Evaluation of Retention of Cemented Laser-Sintered Crowns on Unmodified Straight Narrow Implant Abutments

Purpose: A common problem with cemented crowns is inadequate retention at the crown-abutment interface. The aim of this study was to compare the retention of new laser-sintered cobalt-chromium alloy crowns to the retention of cobalt-chromium alloy crowns fabricated with a traditional casting technique with and without an alloy primer. Materials and Methods: Twenty-four metallic crowns per casting technique were fabricated, and surface roughness values were recorded with a profilometer. Alloy primer was applied to half the specimens, and all crowns were luted with resin cement. After 24 hours, specimens were subjected to tensile force application with a universal testing machine. The effect of the cement amount was evaluated with an analytic balance. The results were compared using the Kruskal-Wallis multiple-comparison test. The Spearman correlation was used to determine correlations between crown retention and cement weight. Results: The laser-sintered crowns (2.72 µm) were rougher than conventionally cast crowns. The mean load to failure values were as follows: 455.10 ± 192.69 Ncm for conventional crowns, 565.52 ± 112.87 Ncm for conventional crowns with alloy primer, 534.78 ± 130.15 Ncm for laser-sintered crowns, and 678.60 ± 212.83 Ncm for laser-sintered crowns with alloy primer. Laser-sintered crowns (10.10 ± 2.15 mg) showed a significant difference in terms of cement weight compared with cast crowns. In addition, negative correlations were found for retention and cement weight between all groups, except for the laser-sintered group without alloy primer. Conclusions: Retentive forces were significantly higher for laser-sintered crowns than for conventionally cast crowns. An increase in the surface roughness and the application of alloy primers led to an increase in the adhesive bonding of resin cements to metal alloys. It was concluded that a reduction in cement weight improved retention.