With the aging of the American population and the endemic problem of gingival recession, patients will inevitably suffer from greater exposure of root surfaces and therefore will be more likely to develop root caries. The treatment of root caries is often frustrating. Traditional biomaterials used for the restoration of enamel caries have been less than satisfactory when margins of a cavity are adjacent to cementum. Although topical fluoride gels, toothpastes, and rinses have been used to prevent or to inhibit the development of root caries, there is a problem of access to the proximal surfaces. Consequently, the development of better methods to facilitate the prevention of root caries has become an important issue in dentistry.

Dental Cementum↗

PubMedDate not supplied

In vitro evaluation of the Thermafil technique with and without gutta percha coating.

To determine the sealing ability of the Thermafil technique with and without gutta percha on the plastic carrier, 40 maxillary incisors were divided into four treatment groups: (A) Thermafil with gutta percha on the carrier; (B) Thermafil without gutta percha on the carrier; (C) lateral condensation with standardize gutta percha; and (D) a single standardized gutta percha cone. Average leakage in groups A-D were 0.64 mm, 1.32 mm, 0.53 mm, and 0.72 mm, respectively. The only significant difference was between the Thermafil without gutta percha and the other three groups (p < 0.05).

Analysis of Variance↗