Metal–Ceramic Compatibility in Dental Restorations According to the Metallic Component Manufacturing Procedure

In terms of production technology, metal–ceramic systems for dental restorations comply with a concrete algorithm, the efficiency of which is always dependent on the applications for which they are intended. The first stage involves obtaining metal support, followed by firing the ceramic on the surface of the metal to meet the list of functional and aesthetic requirements of a future restoration. The compatibility of the two materials—the metal component and the ceramic component—must be ensured in several respects: chemical compatibility, thermo–chemical compatibility, and mechanical compatibility. Thus, there is a need to simulate the thermal behavior of the metal–ceramic couple in its processing to achieve appropriate dental prostheses. In this study, three types of Co–Cr metal frames were manufactured using three different production technologies: conventional casting, milling (CAM), and selective laser melting (SLM). Composition analyses, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and microstructural analyses of the metal–ceramic interface for each type of production technology, as well as the determination of the hardness and the thermal expansion coefficients of experimental materials and three-point bending tests, were carried out in this study. Considering all these aspects, we demonstrated the influence of the technology of producing the metallic part of the metal–ceramic bonding process in dental prostheses.