Objectives: This 120-month follow-up study aimed to investigate the complication rate of abutment teeth after endodontic pretreatment with base metal alloy double crowns with friction pins.
Materials and methods: A total of 158 participants (n = 71, 44.9% women) aged 62.5 ± 12.7 years with 182 prostheses on 520 abutment teeth (n = 459, 88.3% vital) were retrospectively analyzed between 2006 and 2022. Of the endodontically treated abutment teeth, 6.9% (n = 36) were additionally treated with post and core reconstructions. Cumulative complication rates were calculated using the Kaplan-Meier estimator and log-rank test. In addition, Cox regression analysis was performed.
Results: The cumulative complication rate at 120 months for the entire set of abutment teeth was 39.6% (confidence interval [CI]: 33.0-46.2). Endodontically treated abutment teeth (33.8%; CI: 19.6-48.0) were found to have a significantly higher cumulative fracture rate than vital teeth (19.9%; CI: 13.9-25.9, p < 0.001). Endodontically treated teeth restored with post and core reconstructions (30.4%; CI: 13.2-47.6) showed a nonsignificant lower cumulative fracture rate than that of teeth with root fillings only (41.6%; CI: 16.4-66.8, p = 0.463).
Conclusions: Higher 120-month cumulative fracture rates were observed in endodontically treated teeth. Comparable performance was observed in teeth with post and core reconstructions compared to teeth with root fillings only.
Clinical relevance: If endodontically treated teeth are used as abutments for double crowns, the risk of complications from these teeth should be considered when planning treatment and communicating with the patient.
Keywords: Complication rate; Double crowns; Fracture rate; Friction pins; Post and core; Root canal treatment.
© 2023. The Author(s).