sealing ability of mineral trioxide aggregate and calcium-enriched mixture cement as apical barriers with different obturation techniques

introduction: endodontic treatment in pulpless immature teeth is challenging due to the lack of an apical stop. insertion of an apical plug is an alternative to conventional long-term apexification with calcium hydroxide. the aim of this study was to compare the apical microleakage of mineral trioxide aggregate (mta) and calcium-enriched mixture (cem) cement as apical plugs with three different obturation techniques. methods and materials: this experimental study was conducted on 130 single rooted human teeth with one canal. samples were randomly divided into 2 experimental groups ( n =60) and two negative and positive control groups containing 5 samples each. after cleaning and shaping, an open apex configuration was prepared in all samples. mta or cem cement apical plugs with 5 mm thicknesses were placed. then, each group was divided to 4 subgroups and the remaining space of root canals were filled with either lateral compaction or thermoplasticized injectable gutta-percha or was obturated by filling the entire canal with apical plug material. in one remaining subgroup the canal space was left unfilled. microleakage was measured by the fluid filtration method and results were analyzed by means of the two-way anova test. results: there were no significant differences between microleakage of mta and cem cement apical plugs ( p =0.92). the difference between three obturation methods was not significant, either ( p =0.39). conclusion: mta and cem cement have similar sealing ability as apical plugs and no significant difference was found in microleakage of the three groups.