Analysis of enamel and material wear by digital microscope: an in-vitro study

Abstract: The objective of the study was to analyze the surface area (SA) of the wear caused by simulated chewing on human enamel and opposing restorative material, namely: composite resin (CR), porcelain fused to metal (PFM), lithium disilicate (LD), or monolithic zirconia (MZr). Forty-eight premolars were selected as enamel specimens and divided randomly into 4 groups (n = 48; n =12) used as antagonists in chewing simulation (250,000 loading cycles) against one of the four selected test materials. Enamel and material specimens were scanned and evaluated under digital microscope, and wear SA (mm2) were recorded. Descriptive statistics, paired t-test, one-way ANOVA, and post-hoc Tukey-HSD tests were used for statistics (p