Aim:

To evaluate the retention of an endodontic titanium postwith a spherical head for removable partial denture or overdentureattachment according to surface treatment type.

Methods:

Sixtyhealthy single-rooted teeth, sectioned at the enamel/cementumjunction, were treated endodontically and steadily fixed in theembedding acrylic resin.

The titanium posts were subdivided intofour groups:

control, no surface treatment (Ctrl); posts with macroretentivegrooves (MR); air abrasion of the post surface (AB); andposts with macro-retentive grooves and air abrasion of the postsurface (MR+AB). The posts were luted in the root canal usingself-adhesive dual resin cement. Pull-out testing was performedusing a universal testing machine until complete detachment wasachieved. After pull-out testing, the metallic posts were examinedunder an optical microscope and the failures were classifiedbased on the cement distribution pattern on the extracted posts:0, no cement left on the post (cement/post failure); 1, postsurface partially covered by adhered cement (post/cement anddentin/cement mixed failure); 2, post surface completely coveredby cement (dentin/cement failure). The retention data wereanalyzed by one-way ANOVA, Bonferroni–Dunn test (p<0.05)and Weibull analysis.

Results:

AB showed the highest retentionvalue (485.37±68.36), followed by MR+AB (355.80±118.47), MR(224.63±42.54) and Ctrl (113.12 ± 51.32). AB and MR showedthe highest Weibull moduli.

Conclusions:

The data indicatedthat air abrasion alone could significantly increase the retentionof titanium posts/attachments for use with overdentures orremovable partial denture