Effect of post design on endodontically restored teeth

Abstract

In this article a review is carried out on the effect that post design has on the performance of endodontically treated teeth by analysing the bibliography and the works by the authors themselves. We can conclude from this study that sufficient evidence exists of the effect that some parameters have on specific characteristics of the restored tooth. Post length facilitates retention, which is greater for active posts, followed by cylindrical posts, and tapered posts. The diameter of the post must be less than half the root width. Stress distributions that are less susceptible to post diameter or post length are better obtained with fibre posts than with metallic ones. However, no clear conclusions exist for other aspects of restoration, such as how the shape of the post affects its resistance, how the diameter affects retention or how different systems perform under cyclic loading. The previous works by the authors have made it possible to obtain a finite element biomechanical model, validated with experimental data, which could help to clarify the effect of each parameter on the final properties of tooth restoration.