Monolithic zirconia: A review of the literature

Veneer cracking or chipping is the major complication of the zirconia based restorations. Monolithic zirconia has been introduced to overcome this problem, as well as to use in patients with limited interocclusal space. Many research articles on monolithic zirconia crowns have been published in the last years. The aim of this review article was to present data about the wear, surface roughness, fracture strength, optical properties, and marginal fit of monolithic zirconia. A PubMed search was conducted with the terms of "zirconia" with "monolithic", "full-contour", "solid", "translucent", "anatomic-contoured", "un-veneered", "non-veneered", "full-coverage". Based on the results of these studies, monolithic zirconia crowns with polished surfaces have been shown to cause the lowest wear on the antagonists compared to glazed zirconia. The fracture strength of monolithic zirconia has been found higher than veneered zirconia. Monolithic zirconia may be a promising future and long-term follow-up studies are needed to determine whether it may be an alternative to conventional veneered zirconia.