Objective: The aim of this systematic review was to summarize the literature regarding the clinical performance of zirconia crowns for primary teeth.
Materials and methods: Four electronic databases, Ovid, PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science were searched. Clinical, observational, and laboratory studies were included. Studies that assessed the performance of zirconia crowns for primary teeth using outcomes such as gingival and periodontal health, parental satisfaction, color stability, crown retention, contour, fracture resistance, marginal integrity, surface roughness, and recurrent caries were included. Risk of bias was assessed using different assessment tools depending on the type of the assessed study.
Results: Out of the 2400 retrieved records, 73 full-text records were assessed for eligibility. Thirty-six studies were included for qualitative analysis. The included studies reported that zirconia crowns for primary teeth were associated with better gingival and periodontal health, good retention, high fracture resistance, color stability, high parental acceptance, good marginal adaptation, smooth cosmetic surface, and no recurrent caries.
Conclusion: Zirconia crowns are promising alternative to other restorative materials and crowns in the field of pediatric dentistry. They showed higher properties and performance in different clinical aspects and great parental satisfaction.
Keywords: caries; pediatric dentistry; zirconia crowns.