Microleakage of composite resin and amalgam core material under complete cast crowns

Ninety extracted human teeth were used to compare the microleakage of composite resin over, amalgam core, and regular crown preparations under a complete cast gold crown cemented with zinc phosphate cement as determined by 2% fluorescein dye solution. Specimens were compared with and without aging after cementation in a thermal bath by cycling some of them between 4 degrees C and 60 degrees C in a 2% fluorescein dye bath and others in a similar bath held at 37 degrees C. Fluorescein dye (under ultraviolet light) demonstrated microleakage of the specimens between the crown-tooth interface and the core-tooth interface. There were no significant differences in the microleakage due to aging. The specimens held at 37 degrees C in the fluorescein dye bath showed no significant differences between the core preparations and the regular crown preparations. However, when specimens were thermally cycled between 4 degrees C and 60 degrees C, there were significant differences. With thermal cycling, the regular crown preparations were better able to resist microleakage at the crown-tooth interface than either the composite resin core or the amalgam core preparations. The results of this investigation seem to indicate a need for further evaluation of core build-ups under cemented complete gold crowns.