• The Journal of the Korean dental association
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• v.58 no.7
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• pp.435-442
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• 2020

Porcelain is the first ceramic material to be introduced into dentistry. Porcelain jacket crown was introduced by Dr. Charles H Land in 1886, which was an excellent aesthetic dental restoration but has not been widely used due to high firing shrinkage and low tensile strength. Then metal-ceramic system, which combines the esthetic properties of ceramics and the mechanical properties of metals, was introduced and nowadays it is still used in dental clinical field. However, the metal-ceramic system has shown some problems, such as increased lightness by reflection of light at opaque layer, shadow beneath the gingival line due to the block-out of light by metal coping, exposure of metal in margin part, bond failure between metal and porcelain, oxidation of metal coping during firing the porcelain, etc. Recently, along with the advance of fabrication methods of dental ceramics, the all-ceramic restorations with high esthetic and mechanical properties has increased and gradually replaced metal-ceramic restorations. Especially, CAD/CAM technology has opened a new era in fabricating the dental ceramic restorations. This overview will take a look at the past, present and future possibility of the dental ceramic materials.