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Maumann M, Sterzenbach G et al. J Endod 2017; 43: 1770–1775

With an increasingly dentate, ageing population, the restoration of severely damaged, endodontically treated teeth becomes a more common clinical procedure. This project looked at a series of 91 restorations over a 12-year period. At baseline, all teeth were symptomless, had a maximum of two cavity walls remaining, a minimum 2 mm ferrule and no radiographic endodontic defects. All teeth were restored using either a titanium or fibre post, bonded post and core placement, and a porcelain fused to metal single crown or bridge abutment.

Due to the small sample size, no valid statistical differences between the two types of post could be established. The study shows that after 5 years the survival rate for fibre posts was 86.4% and for titanium, 92.5%. Failure across both types increases rapidly after 8 years. However, the authors postulate that the type and rigidity of the post material is less relevant to long-term survival of the tooth than the height of the ferrule.