The effect of surface treatment on the friction and wear behavior of dental Y-TZP ceramic against human enamel

The aim of this paper was to study the influence of different surface treatments procedures on tribological behavior of Yttria-tetragonal zirconia polycristals (Y-TZP) against human enamel. The Y-TZP plates were divided into four areas and each area was subjected to a surface treatment according to the groups: GC - no surface treatment, GM unidirectional milling with high speed tapered bur, GPK polishing kit Kenda and GPD polishing kit Diacera. The results demonstrated that the surface treatments play a relevant role on wear behavior of zirconia. In all cases the tooth suffered a greater wear than the Y-TZP plates. In the case of the polished groups it was obtained an improvement on the wear resistance of the tribopair.