A Review on New Clinical Applications of MTA

An ideal material used for filling root canal system and in periapical surgery should completely seal the pathway connecting root canals and their surrounding tissues.Materials applied for this purpose must neither be toxic nor carcinogenic. They are also expected to be highly biocompatible and dimensionally stable. They should additionally resist dissolving in tissue fluids.Mineral Trioxide Aggregate (MTA); first used as a retrofilling material in root–end surgery to substitute traditional materials which could not seal the apical area completely.Currently MTA is used for pulp capping, pulpotomy, apexogenesis as an apical plug in non-vital open apex teeth, root perforation repair, treatment of root resorption and fracture and for filling the root canal system. Besides its antibacterial and antifungal activity, MTA is highly biocompatible, not soluble in tissue fluids, stimulates hard tissue formation and has a high pH. However, MTA causes tooth color change and shows low compressive strength. Furthermore, lack of a suitable solvent along side its long setting time and high price have limited the widespread application of MTA.