Apexification with MTA

Departments: Pedodontics

Apexification with MTA

Recently, mineral trioxide aggregate (MTA) has been popularized in endodontics due to a large amount of research indicating the beneficial properties of the material in terms of bio-compatibility, ease of manipulation and placement, and a wide array of applications.It has been used for procedures ranging from direct pulp capping to perforation repair as well as for inducing an artificial barrier in open-apex cases (apexification). A study comparing the effectiveness of calcium hydroxide versus MTA has shown that this material has been found to be as effective as calcium hydroxide (Ca(OH)2) for the treatment of cases with an open apex. MTA has shown to be effective in performing the same procedure in a considerably lesser period of time with predictable results. The authors also concluded that the chances for biological calcific bridge formation are favorable when the root canal apices are flush or underfilled with MTA.