COMPARATIVE INVESTIGATION OF MARGINAL ADAPTATION OF MINERAL TRIOXIDE AGGREGATE AND OTHER COMMONLY USED ROOT-END FILLING MATERIALS

This study investigated the marginal adaptation of mineral trioxide ag gregate (MTA) as a root-end filling material, compared with commonly u sed root-end filling materials by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Eighty-eight single-rooted freshly extracted human teeth were cleaned, shaped, and obturated with gutta-percha and root canal sealer. Follow ing root-end resection and cavity preparation, the root-end cavities w ere filled with amalgam, Super-EBA, intermediate Restorative Material (IRM), or MTA, Using a slow-speed diamond saw, 40 roots were longitudi nally sectioned into two halves. Resin replicas of resected root ends of the remaining nonsectioned roots were also prepared. After mounting longitudinal sections of roots and resin replicas of resected roots o n aluminum stubs, the distance between the test root-end filling mater ials and surrounding dentin was measured at four points under SEM. Exa mination elf the original samples showed numerous artifacts in the lon gitudinal sections of the specimens, In contrast, the resin replicas o f resected and filled root ends had no artifacts. Statistical analysis of data comparing gap sizes between the root-end materials and their surrounding dentin Shows that MTA had better adaptation compared with amalgam, Super-EBA, and IRM.