Silicon nitride ceramic for all-ceramic dental restorations

Silicon nitride (Si3N4) is one of the promising ceramics for dental restoration due to providing significant benefits during the application. This study aimed to investigate the potential use of Si3N4 for all-ceramic dental restorations by characterizing some critical properties as color shade, mechanical resistance, shear-bond strength and radiolucency. For our study, porous Si3N4 ceramic was produced by partial sintering process with limited amounts of sintering additives and low temperature. A commercial ZrO2 ceramic was prepared according to manufacturer's instructions and results were compared with Si3N4. Si3N4 is an attractive ceramic for dental applications with good mechanical properties even in porous form, it has additional advantages over the conventional ceramics used as restorative material, such as, inherent antibacterial/anti-infective activity, radiolucency, and lower hardness. It is expected that Si3N4 will become popular in dental applications as well.