Color changes of teeth after treatment with various mineral trioxide aggregate-based materials: an ex vivo study

Abstract

Introduction: Mineral trioxide aggregate (MTA) materials have been used for many years as a pulp therapy material. The most widely used product, ProRoot MTA (Dentsply, Tulsa, OK), has a major drawback in that it causes tooth discoloration. Alternatives have recently been developed such as ENDOCEM Zr (MARUCHI, Wonju, Korea) and RetroMTA (BioMTA, Seoul, Korea). The purpose of this study was to compare the discoloration of these various MTA-based materials.

Methods: Discoloration of discs prepared from 4 different MTA-based materials (ProRoot MTA, MTA Angelus [Angelus, Londrina, PR, Brazil], ENDOCEM Zr, and RetroMTA) were observed at 15 and 30 minutes after exposure to light at an intensity of 1000 mA/cm(2). In a tooth model, 12 premolars were used per each group to retrofill the pulp chamber with MTA-based materials. The degree of discoloration was measured over a 16-week period using a digital spectrophotometer.

Results: Distinct color changes were observed for discs made from ProRoot MTA and MTA Angelus, but no clear change was observed for those made from either ENDOCEM Zr or RetroMTA. In the tooth model, more distinct, time-dependent color changes were observed for teeth filled with ProRoot MTA and MTA Angelus than for those filled with ENDOCEM Zr and RetroMTA.

Conclusions: Less discoloration was observed with ENDOCEM Zr and RetroMTA (which contain zirconium oxide) than with ProRoot MTA and MTA Angelus (which contain bismuth oxide) in both of the test models used.

Keywords: Bismuth oxide; ENDOCEM Zr; RetroMTA; discoloration; mineral trioxide aggregate; zirconium oxide.