Color Stability and Translucency of Polymer-Infiltrated Ceramic-Network Materials—A Systematic Review of the Literature

This systematic review aimed to compile information and report the color stability and translucency of polymer-infiltrated ceramic-network (PICN) materials for suitable clinical applications in dentistry. Original peer-reviewed articles in electronic databases including PubMed, MEDLINE, Scopus, and Web of Science were searched to identify relevant papers published between January 2013 and August 2020. The published papers were only in the English language and limited to in vitro studies, and experimental reports were considered. The data from nine studies were considered when reviewing the color stability and translucency of PICN in comparison to other commonly used restorative materials. Among the included studies, color stability assessment was performed in five studies, and the other four studies were involved in the combined assessment of both color stability and translucency. PICN materials are a comparatively newer class of restorative materials and are recommended to overcome the drawbacks of ceramics and resin composites. The outcomes of previous laboratory studies still do not provide convincing results regarding the optical properties of PICN materials. However, with existing sources and evidence, PICN materials exhibit less color stability than ceramics do but better color stability compared to that of resin nanoceramics (RNC) and resin composites. The translucency of PICN materials is low compared to that of ceramics, nanoceramics, and resin composites.