ex-vivo apical seal comparison of root canal obturation using mta fillapex versus mta orthograde

introduction: mineral trioxide aggregate (mta) as an alternative material to gutta-percha for obturation of root canal in special cases has several drawbacks. the purpose of this study was to compare the apical sealing ability of a new mta-based sealer versus mta. materials and methods: a total of 36 canals of extracted maxillary central incisors were instrumented and randomly divided into 3 experimental groups (n=10) and two negative and positive control groups (n=3). lateral compaction technique was performed using ah26 sealer (group 1 or control), and mta fillapex (group 2). the canals in group 3 were filled using vertical compaction of mta alone. sealing ability was evaluated using dye leakage penetration method. data was analyzed by one way anova and lsd (least significant difference) test. results: the observed leakage in groups 2 and 3 which were filled with mta fillapex and mta orthograde was significantly different from the control group which were filled with ah26 sealer (p=0.015, p=0.001). there was no significant difference between group 2 and 3 which was filled with mta fillapex and mta orthograde (p=0.205). conclusion: within the limitation of this in vitro study, there was no significant difference between apical sealing ability of mta fillapex and mta orthograde.