Aim: The purpose of this in vitro study was to compare marginal and internal gaps of endocrowns fabricated from 3 different CAD-CAM materials.
Subjects and methods: Thirty human mandibular third molars were divided into 3 groups (n=10) according to the material used: e.max CAD, Shofu HC, and Brilliant Crios (n=10). The I-CAT Next Generation scanner was used to obtain cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) images. Gaps were measured at the marginal and axial walls and at the pulpal floor. All data were statistically analyzed by using 2-way mixed ANOVA and post hoc Tukey HSD tests for pairwise comparisons (α=.05).
Results: The gaps at both margin and pulpal surface were significantly different among the 3 groups (P<.001) Significant difference were also found among the in marginal, axial, and pulpal surfaces in each of the 3 groups (P<.001). The lowest mean ±standard deviation marginal gaps were found for e.max CAD (92 ±15.5) m and the lowest pulpal gaps for Brilliant Crios (144 ±15.1 m).
Conclusion: All materials had clinically acceptable margin gaps (<160 m) but the internal gaps were not clinically acceptable except for Brilliant Crios.