An evaluation of the fracture resistance of endodontically treated extracted teeth restored with Titanium, Carbon and Fibre posts : An in-vitro randomized control trial

Post and core enforcement is done for Root Canal Treated (RCT) tooth as per need. Several posts and core systems are available claiming superiority. The usual post and core enforcement used in set up in India include that based on titanium and fiber. An unbiased in-vitro randomized control trial to compare the fracture resistance of RCT teeth with those restored with Titanium, Carbon and Fibre posts was hence conducted. The trial was conducted in a tertiary care dental institute in the eastern part of India. A total of 40 normal samples of extracted first mandibular were randomized to four groups (A through D) of ten samples each. Block random design was used, random number sequence was generated through computer centrally. The process was blinded, also during analysis. Group A (control) was RCT teeth with intact coronal structure while group B, C and D (interventional) were RCT teeth restored with titanium, carbon and fiber posts respectively. Universal Testing Machine ( Tinius Olsen, H50KS) was used for testing fracture resistance. The data were analyzed using Kruskal Wallis test followed by pairwise comparison in Stata v 12.1 SE. All statistical interpretations were done at p= 0.05 levels. The median fracture resistance among the groups was significantly different (p=0.000). Median fracture resistance of control, titanium, and fiber groups were similar (p >0.05). The median fracture resistance of the carbon group was inferior to all other groups (p<0.05). It was concluded that fiber and titanium post and core systems similar in strength to only root canal treated tooth, and scored better as compared to carbon post and core system.