Assessment of clinical preparations for single gold and ceramometal crowns.
OBJECTIVE
Single-crown preparations at a dental teaching hospital were compared with guidelines advocated in the dental literature.


METHODS
Sixty-three single complete gold crown and 151 single ceramometal crown preparations were evaluated. Impression silhouettes were measured for occlusal and axial wall tooth reductions, shoulder widths, internal shoulder angles, and axial wall convergence angles. Marginal designs, the presence of retention grooves and undercuts, and the types of cores present were also recorded.


RESULTS
Cuspal reduction was generally inadequate for the ceramometal crowns, and central fossa reduction was insufficient for both complete gold crowns and ceramometal crowns. The facial shoulder widths were also generally underprepared for the ceramometal crowns. Axial wall convergence angles for both complete gold crowns and ceramometal crowns were generally much greater than recommended. Large faciolingual convergence angles for anterior ceramometal crowns were associated with the absence of cingulum walls. Few preparations had retention grooves or undercut areas.


CONCLUSIONS
Although strict guidelines for tooth preparations for complete crowns are available and well known to dentists, the preparations in this study did not always conform to these recommendations.
Poon
B K
BK
Faculty of Dentistry, University of Hong Kong, Prince Philip Dental Hospital, Hong Kong, Special Administrative Region, China.
Smales
R J
RJ
D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001641:Bicuspid / Q000473:pathology; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D003442:Crowns; D003481:Cuspid / Q000473:pathology; D003761:Dental Impression Technique; D017267:Dental Prosthesis Design; D017268:Dental Prosthesis Retention; D003804:Dentin / Q000473:pathology; D006047:Gold Alloys / Q000737:chemistry; D006801:Humans; D007180:Incisor / Q000473:pathology; D016876:Metal Ceramic Alloys / Q000737:chemistry; D003765:Models, Dental; D008963:Molar / Q000473:pathology; D011176:Post and Core Technique; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D013499:Surface Properties; D019231:Tooth Preparation, Prosthodontic / Q000379:methods*
D006047:Gold Alloys; D016876:Metal Ceramic Alloys