Zirconia-based dental prostheses undergo various grinding steps and heat treatments in preparation for dental patient use. Post-sintered grinding induces a tetragonal-to-monoclinic phase transformation that may lead to failure. These grinding conditions were simulated on fully sintered yttria-stabilized zirconia (Ivoclar IPS e.max Zir-CAD, Ivoclar Vivadent, Schaan, Liechtenstein) using two applied loads (10 and 40 N) and different sizes of diamond grinding media (15-, 45-, and 70-mu m particles). X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Raman spectroscopy were shown to be inadequate to analyze the monoclinic phase within the surface. Grazing incidence XRD correctly identified the presence of monoclinic phase on the ground zirconia surfaces. However, we conclude that, given the resulting ground microstructure, this technique only provides a qualitative measure for the depth profiles of the monoclinic phase for different grinding conditions. It was shown that regeneration of zirconia converts all monoclinic phase to the tetragonal phase, including conversion in specimens that were subjected to the harshest grinding conditions.