To determine if boxes or grooves were effective in enhancing the retention of full veneer crowns.

Ten full veneer crown preparations were machined out of brass with 10 different configurations. They consisted of a plain short preparation, a plain long preparation and preparations with 1 to 4 boxes or 1 to 4 grooves. Ten gold castings were fabricated for each preparation and the cemented. An Instron* was used to remove the castings with the force required recorded in Newtons.

Statistical differences were found in retention between various configurations with boxes being universally more retentive than grooves or the plain crowns.

All the box configurations significantly enhanced retention. Therefore, one box alone would provide the enhanced retention needed for a full veneer crown without the need to create additional retention features.

Weed RM. A Comparison of Methods for Increasing Retention of Complete Veneer Crowns. Int J Experiment Dent Sci 2015;4(2):95-98.