Non-destructive thermo-mechanical behavior assessment of glass-ceramics for dental applications

Every year millions of people seek dental treatment to either repair damaged, unaesthetic and dysfunctional teeth or replace missing natural teeth. Several dental materials have been developed to meet the stringent requirements in terms of mechanical properties, aesthetics and chemical durability in the oral environment. Glass-ceramics exhibit a suitable combination of these properties for dental restorations. This research is focused on the assessment of the thermomechanical behavior of bio-ceramics and particularly lithium aluminosilicate glass-ceramics (LAS glass-ceramics). Specifically, methodologies based on Infrared Thermography (IRT) have been applied in order the structure-property relationship to be evaluated. Non-crystallized, partially crystallized and fully crystallized glass-ceramic samples have been non-destructively assessed in order their thermo-mechanical behavior to be associated with their micro-structural features.