Effect of diamond burs on process and damage involving in vitro dental resurfacing of a restorative porcelain

This work reports on the effect of diamond burs with coarse, medium and fine grit sizes and nickel or chromium coatings on in vitro dental resurfacing of a restorative porcelain. Process parameters such as tangential and normal forces, surface roughness, surface damage and morphology were studied as a function of removal rate using the different burs. At the lower removal rate, the differences for both the tangential and the normal forces were not significant among the coarse, medium and fine burs. However, when the porcelain was removed at the higher removal rate, both the tangential and the normal forces were markedly higher using the fine bur than those using the medium and coarse burs. Surface roughness values in terms of arithmetic mean and maximum roughness decreased significantly with a decrease in diamond grit size. The scale of surface damage in the form of brittle fracture decreased, and more transitions from brittle removal to ductile flow were observed when using finer grit diamond burs. In a comparison of the diamond bur topographies before and after dental finishing, it was found that minimal wear occurred on the nickel-coated coarse diamond bur, while minor abrasive wear occurred on the nickel-coated medium and chromium-coated fine burs.