Conventional and electric field-assisted ion exchange on glass-ceramics for dental applications

•Electric filed-assisted ion exchange depth were found to depend on the total time of the ion exchange treatment.•Multiple steps EF-IE treatments were found to not improve the penetration depth of K+, but guarantee a continuous coverage of the treated region.•It was possible to achieve a potassium penetration depth of about 20 μm with a treatment of 300 s, and this value is close to that obtained with the conventional IE process conducted at 450 °C for 4 h.