biodentine versus mineral trioxide aggregate versus intermediate restorative material for retrograde root end filling: an invitro study.

the aim of this study was to evaluate the marginal adaptation of biodentine in comparison with mineral trioxide aggregate (mta) and intermediate restorative material (irm), as a root end filling material, using scanning electron microscopy (sem).thirty permanent maxillary central incisors were chemo-mechanically prepared and obturated. three millimetres of the root end were resected and 3mm retro cavity preparation was done using ultrasonic retrotips. the samples were randomly divided into three groups (n=10) and were restored with root end filling materials: group i - mta, group ii - biodentine, group iii - irm. the root ends were sectioned transversely at 1mm and 2mm levels and evaluated for marginal adaptation using sem. the gap between dentin and retro filling material was measured at four quadrants. the mean gap at 1mm level and 2mm level from the resected root tip and combined mean were calculated. the data were statistically analyzed, using one-way anova and tukey's hsd post hoc test for intergroup analysis and paired t-test for intragroup analysis.the overall results showed no statistically significant difference between mta and irm but both were superior when compared to biodentine. at 1mm level there was no statistically significant difference among any of the tested materials. at 2mm level mta was superior to both irm and biodentine.in overall comparison, mta and irm were significantly superior when compared to biodentine in terms of marginal adaptation, when used as retrograde filling material.