Pages 51-57, Language: EnglishElbatouty, Kariem M. / Nassif, Mohammad S.Aim: To investigate the efficiency of a newly introduced fibre root canal filling material as a post in comparison to metallic and fibre-reinforced posts.
Materials and methods: Sixty maxillary central incisors were randomly assigned to six groups (n = 10). Groups 1, 2 and 3 were subjected to resistance-to-fracture tests and groups 4, 5 and 6 were subjected to resistance-to-dislodgement tests. In groups 1 and 4, the root canals were filled with newly introduced glass fibre root canal filling material (GF), and the excess filling above the cementoenamel junction was left to act as a post head. In groups 2 and 5, the canals were obturated using gutta-percha and fibre-reinforced posts (FPs). In groups 3 and 6, the canals were obturated using gutta-percha and metallic posts (MPs). For the groups subjected to fracture-resistance tests, restorative resin composite buildups and all-ceramic crowns were fabricated and cemented. These specimens were loaded until failure on the universal materials testing machine. For the dislodgement resistance testing, the post head was fixed to the testing machine by means of a special attachment, and the machine was run in a tension direction until the post was dislodged. Data was analysed using one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) followed by Tukey post hoc tests. Significance was set at P = 0.05.
Results: GF demonstrated the highest mean values of fracture and dislodgement resistance, followed by FP and MP. The fracture resistance values of both FP and GF were significantly higher than MP (P 0.001). There was no significant difference between FP and GF (P = 0.06). The dislodgement resistance values of GF, FP and MP were significantly different (P 0.001).
Conclusions: GF can be used to fill the root canal in a single step and act as a post head to retain a plastic core with improved resistance to fracture.
Keywords: bonding properties, fracture resistance, glass fibre, obturation, post
