Post and Core for Telescopic Crown Retained Dentures – An In Vitro Comparison of Different Materials Using Chewing Simulation

Due to extra axial forces, post and core (PC) treatment shows the worst survival probability if the tooth is used as an abutment for telescopic crown retained dentures (TCD). The reason for this is a mismatch of the mechanical properties between PC material and dentin or a bad accuracy of fit of PC resulting in tooth fracture or decementation. However, the inclusion of severe damaged endodontically treated teeth needing PC is often mandatory in order to receive a statically stable situation for TCD. Thus, an advancement of PC treatment for TCD is of high clinical interest. Recently it is possible to fabricate customized PC with favourable mechanical properties by using CAD/CAM technology. Therefore, the aim of this study was to compare the performance of these PC (CAD/CAM PC) to customized cast PC (CPC) and prefabricated fibre-reinforced PC (PFPC) in a TCD set-up using a chewing simulator. The investigation group with CAD/CAM PC showed neither tooth fracture nor decementation in contrast to CPC and PFPC in which both types of failure were recorded. Thus, CAD/CAM PC showed significantly better performance than CPC and PFPC. Within the limitations of this study CAD/CAM PC are therefore recommendable for PC treatment with TCD.