Impact of Speed Sintering on Translucency, Opalescence and Microstructure of Dental Zirconia with a Combination of 5 mol% and 3 mol% Yttria-Stabilized Zirconia

Optical characteristics and microstructure of multilayered zirconia with different yttria contents in each layer can be influenced differently with a layer after speed sintering. The layer-wise translucency and opalescence of dental zirconia (E.max, E.max ZirCAD prime; Cercon, Cercon ht ML) after conventional (control) and speed sintering were analyzed using a spectrophotometer (n = 5). Specimens were subjected to microstructural analyses (n = 2) using field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) and phase analyses (n = 1) using high-resolution X-ray diffraction (HRXRD) and Rietveld refinement. The translucency parameter (TP) and opalescence parameter (OP) were analyzed using a 3-way ANOVA, followed by Scheffé’s post hoc test (α = 0.05). The average grain size was analyzed using the Welch’s t-test and Kruskal–Wallis test, followed by the Bonferroni–Dunn post hoc test (α = 0.05). Changes to the TP and OP after speed sintering were only observed in the dentin layers. Although the TP of E.max increased (p < 0.05), the difference was below the 50:50% perceptibility threshold (ΔE00 = 0.8). The OP of E.max decreased slightly, whereas that of Cercon increased slightly (p < 0.05). The microstructure and phase fraction of both zirconia barely changed. Therefore, speed sintering is considered to have a negligible clinical impact on the optical characteristics and microstructure.