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New Generation of Dental

Posts for Endodontic

Application
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Noor Hayaty Abu Kasim
Head, Dept. of Conservative Dentistry, Faculty of Dentistry, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

The restoration of endodontically treated teeth is a challenging task as it usually involves the rehabilitation of teeth with significant loss of tooth structure. Tooth fracture has been described as a major failure for endodontically treated teeth, and is the third most common cause of tooth loss after dental caries and periodontal disease.

nhayaty@um.edu.my

In endodontics, two types of post systems are usually

Co-Researchers Dr. Ahmed Abdullah Ali Madfa Prof. Dr. Mohd HamdiAbd Shukor
Dr. Reza Rahbari Ghahnavyeh

used to provide retention for the crowns: cast rehabilitate root canals and and prefabricated posts which are commercially available in different geometries, dimensions and made from various materials. There is also significant mismatch between material properties such as stiffness of the posts and surrounding dental tissues. Moreover, the difference between thermal properties of these dental posts and tooth structure gives rise to thermomechanical stresses. High stress concentration can develop at the restorative-materials/tooth interfaces and thus increase the susceptibility of fracture in endodontically treated teeth.

Ideally, a dental post should stabilize the coronal part of the restoration and at the same time does not weaken the root. When occlusal forces are applied coronally, the force is transferred to the dentine through the coronal and post system. In such situation, stresses tend to top concentrate at the cervical and

tooth. Stress apical part of the concentrations at the cervical region are likely to be due to the increased flexure of the compromised tooth structure, while at the apical region stress concentrations are generally due to the characteristics of the post and the taper of the root canal apically. Therefore, it has been suggested that the ideal dental post should have high stiffness at the cervical region and this stiffness should be gradually reduced apically.

Tooth fracture has been described as a major failure for endodontically treated teeth

Scanning electron micrograph analysis of the interface showed a continuous and graded phase distribution that confirmed the functionally graded structure design (Figure 1). The linear shrinkage after sintering along the layers also confirmed linearity of properties changes inside these Functionally Graded Structure Dental Posts (FGSPs).

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Figure 1: Functronally graded dental post composition (A) FGSP design, (B) Prototype FGSP.

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Figure 2: Von Mises stress distributions along central axis of FGSP under oblique loading.

FGSPs showed lower Von Mises stress concentration compared to the commercial dental posts as illustrated in Figure 2. The Ti concentration variation in xTi-yHA provided a smooth change in the properties of FGSP offering advantages such as reduction of stress concentration. The FGSPs improved the stress dissipation and barred stress propagation into the structure successfully.

Figure 3: Von Mises stress distributions at post/tooth interface under oblique loading.

The FGSPs also dissipated the interface stress efficiently compared to commercial dental posts as shown in Figure 3. The high stress concentration at the middle and the apical parts are undesirable, which may eventually cause debonding between the post and the root canal. This new generation of dental posts will definitely enhance the clinical durability of endodontically treated tooth and thus uplifting the patients' quality of life.