Radiopacity of New Biomaterials Used in Parendodontic Surgery

Purpose: This work studied the radiopacity of retrograde fillings: Portland Cement (CP), Super EBA (SEBA), MTA-Angelus with barium sulfate (MTA-SB), MTA-Angelus with bismuth oxide (MTA-OB), MTA-Angelus (MTA-AC), Ionomer Cement Shofu (IV), PRO ROOT Dentsplay (PRO) and Zinc Oxide Eugenol (OZE). Method: Five metal bands with a 10mm internal diameter and 1mm thickness were filled with each one of the materials, prepared according to manufacturer specifications and radiographed together with the stepwedge proposed by ANSI/ADA n. 53. Films were processed by the time/temperature method and then scanned, and performed 3 analyses of pixel intensity (ip) for each specimen, in a total of 15 readings of each material. Obtained the means, they were compared with a Snedecor’s F distribution in the analysis of variance (ANOVA) with F=16.63 (p=0.000) significant at 1% level. A 5% probability significance level (p less than 0.05) was adopted. Results: Regarding stepwed, considering the pixel intensity (ip), the CP group presented ip below step 3 stepwedge; the IV and MTA-SB groups showed ip between stepes 3 and 4, while for the SEBA, MTA-OB, MTA-AC, PRO and OZE groups, ip was above step 6 stepwedge. Conclusion: Based on the obtained results and the minimum ANSI/ADA specifications, it was possible to conclude that the CP group does not present the minimum radiopacity required from an endodontic cement, and that the IV and MTA-SB are at the standard’s limit. However, considering the cavity dimensions to be retro-filled, the step 3 limit seems insufficient to find safe the retro-filling’s quality.