Objective: The aim of this systematic review was to investigate the clinical outcomes of the use of zirconium-oxide posts in the past 20 years.
Methods: The addressed question was: Do zirconium-oxide posts maintain the long-term survival rate of endodontically treated teeth? A database search was made of articles from January 1995 to December 2014; it included combinations of the following keywords: "zirconia," "zirconium oxide," "dowel/dowels," "post/posts," and "post and core." Exclusion criteria included review articles, experimental studies, case reports, commentaries, and articles published in a language other than English. Articles were reviewed by the titles, followed by the abstracts, and, finally, the full text of the selected studies.
Results: Four studies were included after filtering the selected studies according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria. In one study, the prefabricated zirconia posts with indirect glass-ceramic cores had significantly higher failure rates than other posts with direct composite cores. In two studies, no failure of the cemented posts was observed throughout the follow-up period.
Conclusion: Due to the limited number of clinical studies, it can be concluded that the long-term success rate of prefabricated zirconium-oxide posts is unclear.