Long-term sealing ability of Resilon apical root-end fillings.

AIM: To evaluate ex vivo the long-term sealing ability of the SE Resilon Epiphany system as an apical root-end filling material. METHODOLOGY: A total of 60 standardized horizontal bovine root sections were divided into three groups filled with either gutta-percha with AH 26, tooth-coloured mineral trioxide aggregate (MTA) or Resilon pellets with Epiphany SE, and submitted to capillary flow porometry at 48 h, 1 and 6 months to assess the minimum, mean flow and maximum pore diameters. Results of the different materials and results by material and time were analysed statistically using nonparametric tests; the level of significance was set at 0.05. RESULTS: Resilon had smaller pore diameters than gutta-percha and MTA at 48 h and smaller mean flow and maximum pore diameters than gutta-percha and MTA at 1 month. At 6 months Resilon had larger minimum pore diameters than gutta-percha. Although not always statistically significant, the minimum, mean flow and maximum pore diameters of gutta-percha and MTA diminished with time. This was not the case for Resilon, where the same parameters increased. CONCLUSIONS: All materials leaked at all times. Resilon performed better than gutta-percha and MTA in the short-term, but the seal of MTA and gutta-percha improved over time whereas the seal of Resilon deteriorated. It is critical to evaluate the performance of materials in the long-term contrary to most studies which are short-term.