Clinical trials

Zirconia has shown to be a suitable substitute for metal ceramic crowns when comparing survival, biological and technical complications. Evidence demonstrating the outcomes of surveyed zirconia crowns on removable partial denture abutments is unavailable. Zirconia as a substitute for metal ceramic is being currently used for fabricating surveyed crowns although quantitative data evaluating its efficacy is sparse. The purpose of this prospective clinical trial is to evaluate clinical outcomes when zirconia is used as a full coverage restoration on removable partial denture abutments. The study will be designed as a 3-5 year prospective observational trial in the University of Toronto undergraduate clinic in a controlled environment. Outcomes measures will include survival, biological and technical complications. Descriptive statistics will be used to summarize patient characteristics and outcomes and for categorical variables frequency and percentages will be reported. A level of significance 0.05 will be used for inferential analysis, with p-values \< 0.05 reported as statistically significant. It is expected that zirconia will demonstrate similar outcomes to traditional metal ceramic surveyed crowns.