Push-out strength of fiber posts depending on the type of root canal filling and resin cement

The purpose of this study was to analyze the push-out strength of two fiber post systems/resin cements (RelyX Unicem/RelyX Fiber Post (RLX) and Variolink II/DT Light SL (VL)) depending on the root canal filling (RF). One hundred sixty extracted human teeth were divided into four groups: gutta-percha/AH Plus (GP), gutta-percha/Guttaflow (GF), pre-existing root canal filling (PRF), and without root canal filling (WRF). After root canal treatment, fiber posts were inserted using either RelyX® or Variolink II®/Excite DSC®. Half of the specimens were thermocycled (TC, 5,000 cycles, 5–55°C). All specimens were subjected to the push-out test (crosshead speed 1 mm/min). Three-way ANOVA showed a significant influence of either the RF or the resin cement/post system (p < 0.001). The highest bond strength was measured for VL-WRF without TC (16.5 ± 6.4 MPa). TC had no significant influence within the RLX groups. For groups PRF and WRF, significant differences were documented between VL and RLX (PRF 16.3 ± 6.0 vs 7.0 ± 2.4 MPa, p = 0.001; WRF 16.5 ± 6.4 vs 8.0 ± 5.0, p = 0.004) before TC. No differences were found after TC. The fracture mode analysis for VL showed mainly adhesive fractures between post and cement. For RLX, mixed fractures between post and tooth and between tooth and cement were predominantly determined. The adhesion of resin cements/post systems could be dependent on the type of RF. Higher bond strength values were found for the conventional (“etch and rinse”) adhesive than for the “self-adhesive resin cement.”