Pilot study of the cyclic fatigue characteristics of five endodontic posts with four core materials

This pilot study concerned the cyclic fatigue of five different endodontic post systems (AccessPost(R), Flexi-Flange(R), Flexi-Post(R), ParaPost(R), and Vlock(R)) with four different core materials (Tytin(R) Silver amalgam, Ti-Core(R), Ketac-Silver(R) and G-C Miracle Mix(R)). In vitro cyclic fatigue was performed using a fatigue machine that simulates masticatory fatigue forces. An instantaneous force of 5 lb was applied to each post and core combination for a test configuration of 4 000 000 repetitions or until failure occurred. The type of failure and number of repetitions at failure was recorded for each sample tested. Two-way ANOVA was used to compare groups. All posts/core samples with Ti-Core and Tytin Silver amalgam completed the test configuration of 4 000 000 cycles without failures. All posts/core samples with Ketac-Silver failed before the 4 000 000 test cycle configuration, all as a result of core failures. All posts/core samples with G-C Miracle Mix failed in a similar way. The Newman-Keuls multiple comparison test illustrated that Ti-Core and Tytin Silver amalgam were similar to each other and were superior to both G-C Miracle Mix and Ketac-Silver. Similar fatigue test results are found in the literature.