Purpose: The purpose of this study was to assess the effect of different high-palladium alloys on the resulting color of opaque porcelain. Three Pd-Cu-Ga alloys, Spartan Plus (S; Williams Dental Co/Division of Ivoclar North America, Amhest, NY), Liberty (B; J.F. Jelenko & Co, Armonk, NY), and Freedom Plus (F; J.F. Jelenko & Co); 4 Pd-Ga alloys, Legacy (L; J.F. Jelenko & Co), IS 85 (I; Williams Dental Co), Protocol (P; Williams Dental Co), and Legacy XT (X; J.F. Jelenko & Co); and a Pd-Ag alloy, Super Star (T; J.F. Jelenko & Co), were examined. The Au-Pd alloy Olympia (O; J.F. Jelenko & Co) served as the control.
Materials and methods: Three cast 16-mm discs, 1-mm thick, were prepared from each of the alloys. After metallurgically polishing and air-abrading, the specimens were oxidized following the manufacturer's recommendations. Shade B1 opaque porcelain (Vita-Omega; Vident, Baldwin Park, CA) was applied at a final thickness of 0.1 mm using a mold. After 2 opaque porcelain firing cycles, the surfaces were air-abraded. The colors of the specimens were measured using a colorimeter and expressed in Commission International de l'Eclairage (CIE) L*a*b* coordinates. Color differences (delta E) were determined between the control and each experimental group. Analysis of Variance and Tukey-Kramer tests were performed on the delta E data.
Results: The 3 Pd-Cu-Ga alloys showed significantly greater (p < .01) delta E values (S = 2.8 +/- 1.1, B = 3.0 +/- 0.6, and F = 2.1 +/- 0.2) than the remaining 5 experimental groups (L = 0.7 +/- 0.5, I = 0.7 +/- 0.4, P = 0.7 +/- 0.2, X = 0.7 +/- 0.4, and T = 0.7 +/- 0.5). The directions of the significant color changes were relatively equally distributed along the L*, a*, and b* axes, and all delta L*, delta a*, and delta b* values were negative (lower value, more green and blue relative to control O).
Conclusions: This work suggests that a 0.1-mm-thick layer of opaque porcelain in the Pd-Cu-Ga alloys studied, did not reliably reproduce the color of porcelain.