Tribological behavior of zirconia-reinforced glass-ceramic composites in artificial saliva

The purpose of this study was to characterize the wear behavior of dental glass-ceramic composites reinforced with different contents of zirconia particles (10-50%). The tests were carried out using a ball-on-plate configuration, in artificial saliva at body temperature (37 °C). The worn surfaces were characterized by field emission guns scanning electron microscope. The results demonstrated that zirconia plays a relevant role on wear behavior of zirconia reinforced glass-ceramic composites. The optimal wear properties were obtained for the glass-ceramic reinforced with 30% (vol%) of zirconia particles. The improvement on wear resistance was mainly attributed to the good dispersion of the reinforcement phase, which allowed the load transfer reinforcing mechanism to effectively occur from the matrix to the reinforcement.