A study of the clinical and radiographic outcomes of root canal obturation with Obtura-II System using thermoplasticised Gutta-percha in traumatised and auto-transplanted teeth

Background: Obtura-II injectable thermoplasticised gutta-percha technique has been available for several years. However, thus far, there are no published studies that have evaluated its clinical and radiographic success in non-vital young traumatised permanent incisors in children where teeth are expected to survive for the life-span of the patient.
Aim: Evaluating the clinical and radiographic success of Obtura-II system in the root canals of non-vital young traumatised permanent incisors in children; studying the effect of different demographic and prognostic factors on the success rate of the technique; and investigating the outcome for this technique when used to obturate auto-transplanted teeth in children and adolescents.
Method: This study was a retrospective study evaluating the Obtura-II treatment outcomes. Clinical dental records and periapical radiographs of 667 patients who attended the trauma clinic at the Paediatric Dentistry Department at Leeds Dental Institute during the period 2003–2011 were screened. The obturated teeth were classified as either successful or failure according to criteria developed for this study. Various prognostic factors that could influence the clinical and radiographic outcome of the technique were recorded using a special data extraction proforma. The data were entered into SPSS, with simple descriptive analysis and bivariate analyses conducted subsequently. Furthermore, a logistic regression analysis was carried out with the aim of obtaining the relation between different prognostic factors and the treatment outcomes.
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Results: According to the study criteria, 235 cases with 275 non-vital young permanent incisors with various stages of root development were included, in addition to 49 auto-transplanted teeth. The mean age of patients at the time of trauma was 10.2 years. The cases considered clinically successful accounted for 92.7% whilst the cases considered radiographically successful were 85.4% over a mean follow-up period of 51 months for the traumatised teeth. In addition, the clinical and the radiographic success for the auto-transplanted teeth were 97.9% and 93.8%, respectively. The logistic regression analysis showed a significant association between some of the prognostic factors, such as the type of trauma, the duration of Ca(OH)2 dressing, and the quality of obturation and the Obtura-II technique treatment outcomes in treating traumatised teeth. However, none of the factors associated significantly with the treatment outcomes in the cases of the auto-transplanted teeth.
Conclusion: Obtura-II technique in the root canal treatment of the traumatised teeth was considered clinically successful in 92.7% and radiographically in 85.4% of the cases over a long follow-up period. In addition, when treating auto-transplanted teeth, the technique was clinically successful in 97.9% and radiographically in 93.8% of cases.