ABSTRACT
This study sought to evaluate how different post cementation strategies affected the fatigue resistance of bovine teeth restored with glass fiber posts. The canals of 63 single-rooted bovine teeth (each 16 mm in length) were prepared to 9 mm using a preparation drill from a double-tapered fiber post system. Each specimen was embedded in a PVC cylinder using acrylic resin up to 3 mm of the most coronal portion of the specimen and was allocated into one of seven groups (n = 9) based on the strategies for cementation. After cementation, a standard core build-up was made with composite resin. The specimens were stored for seven days and submitted to mechanical cycling (50 N, 8 Hz, 37 degrees C). After fatigue testing, a score was given to each specimen, based on the number of fatigue cycles required to fracture the specimens; the scores were submitted to statistic analysis (Kruskal-Wallis, alpha = 0.05). The strategy for post cementation did not affect the resistance to fatigue (P = 0.8669). Based on the results, the resistance to fatigue does not appear to depend on the post cementation strategy.
