Microleakage of teeth restored with different adhesive dowel systems: an in vitro study.

PURPOSE: Commercial fiber-reinforced dowel systems are marketed as having better adhesion and sealing ability than conventional metallic dowel systems. The aim of this in vitro study was to evaluate the microleakage of teeth restored with nine dowel systems. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Ninety mandibular second premolar teeth were decoronated, and nine homogenous groups were composed of ten teeth each. Root canal and dowel space preparations were made, and eight fiber-reinforced composite dowel systems and one stainless steel dowel system were used to fabricate dowel restorations. Microleakage measurements of the restored teeth were made with a modified fluid filtration method, and data were collected. One sample Kolmogorov-Smirnov, one-way ANOVA, and Tukey-HSD tests were performed on the relative microleakage data of the groups. RESULTS: Microleakage values were reported relative to those for teeth with unfilled canals. The highest and lowest relative microleakage values were recorded for the metallic Parapost (7.06 × 10(-4) %) and fiber-reinforced Everstick (3.55 × 10(-4) %) groups, respectively. Significant differences in relative microleakage between the fiber-reinforced dowels and stainless steel dowels were observed. Significant differences among the fiber-reinforced dowel groups were observed as well. CONCLUSIONS: The sealing ability of all fiber-reinforced composite dowels is not better than that of stainless steel dowels, and there are significant differences among different fiber-reinforced dowel systems as well. Differences among commercial dowel systems must be taken into consideration when making a selection.