Strength and fracture toughness of zirconia dental ceramics

It is concluded that the high R-curves reported in the literature for long and short cracks in 12Ce-TZP and 3Y-TZP might have only a marginal influence on the fracture resistance with cracks of the size studied. This effect is of more significance in 12Ce-TZP. The use of an ideal and simple model of R-curve is presented as a useful guide to predict whether the fracture stress will be enhanced by an existent R-curve.