Evaluation of the solubility, calcium-release ability, and apatite-forming ability of a novel chemically curable mineral trioxide aggregate material

Abstract

A novel chemically curable, resin-modified-type mineral trioxide aggregate (MTA) material polymerized by tri-n-butylborane (PCX-TBB), and light-curable, resin-modified-type MTA material (TheraCal LC®) clinically useful were evaluated in terms of solubility, calcium-release ability, compressive strength and apatite-forming ability. The solubility of PCX-TBB conformed to ISO 6876, whereas that of TheraCal LC® did not conform to the abovementioned standard. The calcium-release ability of PCX-TBB and TheraCal LC® showed no difference after 1 day of immersion in purified water. However, after 30 days of immersion, the calcium concentration of PCX-TBB increased and became higher than that of TheraCal LC®. The compressive strength of PCX-TBB was stable even if immersed in simulated body fluid (SBF) for 30 days. In contrast, the compressive strength of TheraCal LC® showed a tendency to decrease slightly by immersion in SBF. Furthermore, the apatite-forming ability of PCX-TBB was determined to be superior to that of TheraCal LC®. The results presented herein suggest that PCX-TBB has potential as a superior MTA material and may have improved hard tissue-induction ability compared to that of TheraCal LC®.