An auxiliary factor for increasing the retention of short abutments.

Background: Retention is an essential factor in the sustainability of the prosthesis, especially for short abutment. Despite, the availability of several auxiliary applications, achieving a clinically good retention for cast crowns in prepared short teeth remains a major challenge for the practicing dentist.

Objectives: This study tests a new method for applying frustum-shaped grooves on short prepared abutments and compares them with traditional setting grooves.

Methods: Forty-eight copper machine-milled short dies with 3.5 mm length and 12 conversion with a chamfer finish line of 0.7 mm were prepared to mimic short prepared molars and distributed into 4 groups. A control group with two opposing setting grooves and two groups with dual opposing frustums, one of which was prepared to receive two integrated metal protrusions inside the casting that fit the frustums. Frustums were prepared with Komet bur No. 807 with dimensions 0.9 mm at the base and 0.7 mm at the occlusal surface. A direct wax-up was carried out on all dies and all castings were cemented with zinc phosphate cement. A pull-off test was applied until separation. Data were analysed to compare the correlation of the four groups using one-way ANOVA and Bonferroni test (p ≤ 0.05).

Results: The mean retentive values in Newton were as follows: the control group, 457.80; the setting grooves group, 461.07; the frustum group, 597.59; and the frustum group with the two metal protrusions, 919.80. The retention was increased by 65% in frustum group and doubled in frustum group with the metal protrusions.

Conclusions: The results showed a statistical significance in retention in the frustum groups with and without metal protrusion over the retention of the control and the setting grooves groups.