Objectives: To investigate the surface properties (roughness, composition, phase transformation) of monolithic zirconia specimens after dental adjustment procedures (grinding, polishing) and wear simulation. Methods: Zirconia specimens (Cercon base, Cercon ht, DeguDent, G; n = 10/material) were successively sintered, ground, and polished with an intraoral polishing kit in a three-step procedure. Sintered zirconia specimens with high surface roughness served as a reference. For each treatment step, wear simulations with steatite plates (d = 10 mm) as antagonists were conducted as well as surface roughness tests (R-a), EDX analysis, and X-ray diffraction (XRD) measurements. SEM pictures were taken, and data were statistically analyzed (one-way ANOVA, post hoc Bonferroni, alpha = 0.05). Results: Grinding significantly (p = 0.000) increased the roughness of sintered zirconia up to values of 1.36 +/- 0.11 mu m (R-a). Polishing significantly (p = 0.000) reduced R-a. The lowest roughness value after the final polishing step was 0.20 +/- 0.03 mu m. Wear testing resulted in a further slight decrease of R-a. After the grinding procedure, SEM pictures showed deep grooves that were progressively smoothed by polishing. The EDX spectra showed that magnesium was transferred from steatite antagonists to zirconia by wear. In the XRD-patterns, monoclinic (m) peaks were observed after grinding and polishing. The maximum intensity ratio between the m (1 1 -1) peak and the tetragonal t (1 1 1) peak decreased after the completion of all polishing steps. Wear did not induce phase transformation. Conclusions: Adequate polishing reduced the roughness of ground zirconia. Wear had little influence on roughness and no influence on phase transformation. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.