Retentive force of a conical crown with CAD/CAM-fabricated PEEK and zirconia secondary crowns on titanium implant abutments.

This study aimed to evaluate the retentive force of polyetheretherketone (PEEK) and zirconia secondary crowns on ready-made titanium implant abutments (with height, diameter, and taper as 5.5 mm, 4.5 mm, and 6°, respectively) as the primary crown. PEEK, zirconia, and titanium secondary crowns were fabricated using a CAD/CAM system. Insertion and removal tests of secondary crowns on the primary crown were conducted for 2,000 cycles. The initial retentive forces recorded at the 100th cycle for PEEK, zirconia, and titanium were 13.0±7.9, 2.9±2.6, and 27.6±1.7 N, respectively. The retentive forces of PEEK and zirconia showed no significant difference among all cycles. However, the retentive force of the titanium used as a control decreased (20.3±2.8 N) significantly at the 2,000th cycle. Although the retentive force of PEEK was lower than that of titanium, it was within the range that can provide a suitable retentive force of 5 N for removable dental prostheses.