Influence of an internal firing of feldspathic porcelain before or after sintering on adaptation of high-translucent zirconia laminate veneers

The aim of the present study was to evaluate the influence of two different internal surface treatments, namely, the firing of feldspathic porcelain before or after zirconia sintering, on the marginal and internal adaptation of laminate veneers (LVs) made of high-translucent zirconia. A total of 33 zirconia LVs were fabricated using a CAD/CAM system and divided into three groups based on the internal surface treatment method: the pre-firing (PRE) group involved firing feldspathic porcelain before zirconia sintering, the post-firing (POS) group involved firing feldspathic porcelain after zirconia sintering, and the no treatment (NT) group involved no application of feldspathic porcelain. The adaptation of the LVs was measured using a silicone replica technique. Data were analyzed using the Kruskal–Wallis and Steel–Dwass tests (α = .05). The POS group showed significantly higher marginal discrepancy values than the PRE group across all sites. The internal space values of the PRE groups were significantly lower than those of the NT group at all sites. The internal firing of feldspathic porcelain before zirconia sintering resulted in better marginal adaptation of the high-translucent zirconia LVs than the internal firing of feldspathic porcelain after zirconia sintering. The internal firing of feldspathic porcelain before zirconia sintering can achieve uniform internal adaptation of high-translucent zirconia LVs.