Characterization of Lithia‐Based Machinable Glass‐Ceramic Materials

A range of dental lithia-based glass-ceramic materials exhibited substantial differences in chemical composition, strength, and optical properties of a magnitude expected to influence their clinical performance. The milling of partly crystallized blocks, followed by additional crystallization, almost doubled flexural strength values in comparison to the milling of fully sintered blocks or control materials. At high magnification, machining damage was evident for all materials except for one partially crystallized lithia-based material, which had also exhibited the highest strength.