Randomized clinical comparison of endodontically treated teeth restored with amalgam or with fiber posts and resin composite: five-year results

Prospective clinical studies comparing the results of different types of restorations of endodontically treated teeth are lacking. This study compared the clinical success rate of endodontically treated premolars restored with fiber posts and direct composite to the restorations of premolars using amalgam. Premolars with Class II carious lesions were selected and randomly assigned to one of two experimental groups: (1) restoration with amalgam or (2) restoration with fiber posts and composite. One hundred and nine teeth were included in Group 1 and 110 in Group 2. Patients were recalled after 1, 3 and 5 years. No statistically significant difference was found between the proportion of failed teeth in the two experimental groups. Significant differences were observed between the proportion of root fractures (p=0.029) and caries (p=0.047), with more root fractures and less caries observed in the teeth restored with amalgam at the five-year recall. Within the limits of this study, it can be concluded that restorations with fiber posts and composite were found to be more effective than amalgam in preventing root fractures but less effective in preventing secondary caries.