Marginal adaptation of partial crowns cast in pure titanium and in a gold alloy - an in vivo study.

The aim of the present study was to assess in vivo the marginal integrity of partial crowns cast in pure titanium and in a gold alloy. For this purpose, two groups of 25 molars were prepared for partial crowns and then restored with partial crowns cast in Degulor M gold alloy and in pure titanium. At a subsequent session, replicas were produced using a special impression-taking technique. The scanning electron microscope (SEM) technique was used to perform quantitative margin analysis (Tiffmess 1.8 program). The gold alloy partial crowns displayed significantly (P < 0.05) more continuous margin (marginal quality A, <50 microm), and the titanium partial crowns significantly more marginal quality B (50-100 microm) and C (>100 microm). The results show that better marginal integrity can be achieved with gold alloy than with titanium partial crowns. However, in practical terms the difference in marginal quality is only slight, so that the use of pure titanium for single-tooth restorations is justified.