Influence of fiber post cementation length on coronal microleakage values in vitro and finite element analysis

This study aims to evaluate, the Influence of different fiber posts cementation lengths by finite element analysis (FEA) and coronal microleakage.

Fifty anterior bovine teeth were sectioned to obtain roots with 16 mm length. The coronal length of the post was 6 mm for all groups, while the radicular length were varied 6, 8, 10 or 12 mm. The fiber posts surfaces were cleaned with alcohol and silanized. Then the posts were cemented using a two steps total etch-and-rinse adhesive system + conventional resin cement. Forty teeth were submitted to mechanical cycling (45°; 2.000.000 cycles; 90N; 4Hz; 37°C) and ten teeth with radicular length of 12 mm was not submitted, ser ving as c ontrol. So, the experimental design was composed by different ratios of post coronal length/post radicular length and mechanical cycling (MC): Gr1- 1/1 + MC; Gr2- 3/4 + MC; Gr3- 3/5 + MC; Gr4- 1/2 + MC. All groups were immersed in a 1% toluidine blue solution. After 24 hours, the teeth were longitudinally sectioned and the microleakage scores was given by a blind operator. Data were submitted to Kruskal-Wallis test (p = 0.05). The experimental variables were simulated in two-dimensional finite element analysis (2D-FEA). The maximum principal stress distributions were compared.

No difference was observed in microleakage values between the cycled groups, whilst the control groups showed the lowest values. FEA analysis showed similar maximum principal stress distribution between the groups.

Mechanical cycling affected the values of coronal microleakage and different cementation length generated similar values of coronal microleakage and stress distribution.

These results showed that from the microleakage point of view, more conservative cementation lengths have the same effect as longer cementation lengths.