RIGIDITY AND RETENTION OF ROOT-CANAL POSTS

Objective To test the rigidity and the retention into roots of paralle l root canal posts, one a spiral vented titanium post and the other a spiral serrated, hollow stainless steel post. A serrated, stainless st eel post was used as the control. Materials and methods A three-point bending test was used to test rigidity. To test retention, ten posts o f each type were cemented into the roots of extracted teeth with a res in cement and the tensile loads required to remove them were compared using Student's t and Mann-Whitney U tests. Results The serrated stain less steel posts were significantly more rigid than either of the othe r types. The titanium posts and the stainless steel hollow posts were not significantly different in rigidity. The serrated, stainless steel posts were significantly better retained than either of the other typ es. The titanium posts showed greater retention than the hollow posts. Conclusions Within the limits of the study the stainless steel, serra ted posts were superior to the two newer types in terms of rigidity an d retention into roots.