Fabrication of MTA-like cements and their mechanical, handling, and setting properties in relation to the choice of setting solution

Mineral trioxide aggregate (MTA) has been used as root-end filling material in dentistry due to its excellent sealing ability as well as biocompatibility. However, some drawbacks of MTA cements, including low cohesive property and long setting time, have limited their widespread applications. In this research, we evaluated the effect of three setting solutions, namely distilled water, malic acid, and chitosan solution on the mechanical, handling, and setting properties of the cements. The chitosan-containing cements showed superior setting time and handling properties over the water- and malic-acid-containing cements. The mechanical strength of water- and chitosan-containing cements was almost similar but significantly improved as compared to malic-acid-containing cements. Our results from morphology and chemical analysis showed that the chitosan-containing MTA cements improved the hydroxyapatite-formation ability as compared to those which were made by water and malic acid. It was concluded that the chitosan-containing MTA cements have an excellent potential to be acceptable as root-end filling materials.