Purpose: This in vivo study was designed to verify the presence of pulpal inflammation on teeth after 1 year of function from cementation of porcelain inlays.
Materials and methods: Thirty-two vital, healthy, caries-free and previously untreated maxillary and mandibular first premolars in eight patients needing extraction for orthodontic reasons were included in this study. For each patient three first premolars were randomly chosen and treated with porcelain MOD inlays. One first premolar served as the control group with no restorations. The porcelain inlays were cemented with dental adhesive and composite resin cement without pulpal protection. The same dentist, following standardized preparation, impression, and cementation techniques, accomplished all clinical phases. The teeth were extracted 1 year later. The condition of the pulp tissues of the 24 teeth with porcelain inlays was compared with the pulpal tissues of the eight teeth of the control group. The data relating to the number of inflammatory cells were evaluated by one-way analysis of variance to assess quantitative differences between the group of teeth with porcelain inlays and the group without porcelain inlays (p < 0.05). Means and standard deviations were calculated for each group.
Results: The microscopic analysis revealed the absence of pulpal inflammation of the teeth with porcelain inlays when compared with the teeth of the control group. The analysis of variance revealed no statistical differences between the two groups compared.
Conclusion: Within the limitations of this study, the cementation of porcelain inlays with dental adhesive and composite cement on healthy premolars did not result in any inflammatory reaction of the pulpal tissues 1 year after placement.