Fatigue life of three core materials under simulated chewing conditions.

There has been an increase in the use of prefabricated post systems to restore endodontically treated teeth. Various restorative materials are being used as core buildups on these posts. The purpose of this study was to compare three core materials that are used with prefabricated stainless steel posts. Two types of prefabricated posts were placed in extracted teeth, followed by core buildups in amalgam, composite resin, or glass ionomer. The teeth were prepared for full cast crowns with the margins of the crown preparation extending 0.5 to 1.0 mm below the margins of the core buildup. Crowns were fabricated and cemented with zinc phosphate cement. A custom-designed chewing machine was used to cyclically load the teeth with vertical and horizontal forces for one million cycles or until failure occurred. Results indicated highly significant differences in the survival of the post-core-crown restorations depending on which core buildup material was used. Amalgam cores had the lowest failure rate, followed by composite resin cores. All teeth restored with crowns over glass-ionomer core buildup failed. The type of prefabricated post used had no effect on the survival of the post-core-crown restorations regardless of the core buildup used.