Silica-based ceramics are highly aesthetic due to their high glass content and excellent optical properties due to the addition of filler particles which enhance opalescence, fluorescence which can mimic the colour of natural enamel and dentine.
These ceramics, however, suffer from poor mechanical strength, and therefore often used for veneering stronger substructures.

Examples include aluminosilicate glass, e.g. feldspathic, synthetic porcelain, and leucite reinforced ceramics.

Mechanical properties can be improved by the addition of filler particles, e.g. lithium disilicate, and are therefore termed glass ceramics.
Glass-ceramics can be used alone to make all-ceramic restorations either as a single form (termed uni-layered) or can act as a substructures for subsequent veneering (or layering) with weaker feldspathic porcelain (restorations termed bi-layered).
Silica-based ceramics are highly aesthetic due to their high glass content and excellent optical properties due to the addition of filler particles which enhance opalescence, fluorescence which can mimic the colour of natural enamel and dentine. These ceramics, however, suffer from poor mechanical strength, and therefore often used for veneering stronger substructures.
Examples include aluminosilicate glass, e.g. feldspathic, synthetic porcelain, and leucite reinforced ceramics.
Mechanical properties can be improved by the addition of filler particles, e.g. lithium disilicate, and are therefore termed glass ceramics. Glass-ceramics can be used alone to make all-ceramic restorations either as a single form (termed uni-layered) or can act as a substructures for subsequent veneering (or layering) with weaker feldspathic porcelain (restorations termed bi-layered).
Crown (dentistry)