The effect of dental prophylaxis instruments on the surface roughness of metals used for metal ceramic crowns.

Prophylactic instruments may cause surface deterioration of metal crown margins, which could cause or aid the retention and accumulation of plaque. In this investigation, highly polished metal disks of high content gold (RX Y), low content gold (Aspen), silver palladium (RX 91), and nickel-chrome alloy (REX III) had their surfaces tracked with an explorer, hand scaler, curette, and a Dentsply Cavitron instrument. The surface roughness was measured with a profilometer. The results indicate that the high content gold was the least resistant to surface deterioration and the ultrasonic scaler caused the most surface deterioration to all the metals.