DOI: 10.36347/sjds.2018.v05i09.008

Pages: 443-451

The aim was to evaluate in vitro the fracture strength of conservative versus traditional access cavity design in molar teeth. The null hypothesis tested was that there is no difference in fracture strength of sound molars, molars with conservative and those with traditional access cavities design. Sample size for maxillary and mandibular molars was calculated using Gpower software. Forty two extracted human intact maxillary and mandibular molars were assigned to Traditional Access Cavity (TAC), Conservative Access Cavity (CAC) and Sound Control groups (SC) (n = 7/group/type). TAC groups were prepared with pulp chamber de-roofing and straight line access. For CAC a soffit and pericervical-dentine were maintained. Working length was determined and canals were left un-obturated and mounted in self-cured acrylic resin molds of PVC for testing. Specimens were then tested with a compression testing machine and fracture force data were recorded in Newton for analysis. Data were normally distributed; therefore One-way ANOVA and post-hoc Tukey tests were used for analysis. The software R & R Studio were used for statistical analysis. Results showed the fracture load for CAC was significantly higher in mandibular molars (P Value = 0.0367250) compared to TAC groups. For maxillary molars fracture load for CAC was not significantly higher (P Value = 0.0951567) compared to TAC group. We concluded that Mandibular molars after preservation of pericervical dentine and soffit were found to have higher fracture strength compared to teeth with traditional straight line access.