Purpose:
Examine factors affecting healing of root perforations with amalgam or gutta percha (GP).
Materials/Methods:
-57 cases of iatrogenic root perforations obtained from student clinics at the University of Oklahoma College of Dentistry.
-Perforations repaired with amalgam (24) or GP (33).
-5 failing cases were treated surgically.
– recalls at 3 months – 6 years
Results:
-GP had 57.6% failure, 73% of all failures.
-Amalgam had a 26% failure rate.
-70% of all failures involved extrusions, and 83% of this were GP repairs.
-Success was greater than failure even when repair delayed up to 60 days.
-Amalgam was superior to GP.
-Repairs with extruded GP most likely to fail.
-All surgical cases showed healing after treatment
Clinical Significance:
Amalgam is better than GP WVC (due to extrusion as a cause of failure.) A delay in repair did not affect outcome. Surgical repair appears to be highly successful.