Antagonist enamel wear of tooth-supported monolithic zirconia posterior crowns in vivo: A systematic review

Statement of problem. An assessment of the evidence for the antagonist enamel wear of tooth-supported monolithic zirconia posterior crowns is lacking. Purpose. The purpose of this systematic review was to identify and summarize clinical studies related to the antagonist enamel wear of tooth-supported monolithic zirconia posterior crowns. Material and methods. PubMed, Embase, and Cochrane library searches were performed and complemented by manual searches from database inception to December 25, 2017, for title and abstract analysis. Results. Initially, 198 articles were obtained through database searches. Twenty-one articles were selected for full-text analysis, and 5 studies met the inclusion criteria. Because of the heterogeneity in design, surface treatment, measurement methods, and wear parameters, a meta-analysis was not possible. The selected studies were analyzed regarding the antagonist natural enamel wear of zirconia, measurement methods, and surface treatment. The results of the antagonist enamel wear varied widely, which made comparing them scientifically with absolute values difficult. Conclusions. This review indicated that the antagonist enamel wear of zirconia was similar to or more than that of natural teeth but less than that of metal-ceramics. Additional properly designed, longer follow-up clinical trials with larger sample sizes are needed to evaluate the antagonist enamel wear of monolithic zirconia crowns in vivo.