MTA Solubility: A Long Term Study

The purposes of this long-term study was to assess the amount of soluble material released by Mineral Trioxide Aggregate to a water medium, to determine if the solubility differences between specimens of various water/powder ratio, as demonstrated in a previous study, would be maintained over time, and to measure the pH of the water that was in contact with the specimens. Specimens were processed at 0.28 and 0.33 water/powder ratios, and immersed in water according to the ISO 6876 standard. The specimens were periodically removed to assess salt content release and reimmersed in fresh water. Assay testing was periodically performed over a 78-day period. Results were expressed as Daily Solubility (solubility rate), and Cumulative Solubility. The mathematical projection from Cumulative Solubility to infinite time showed that MTA could solubilize 22.06% at 0.28 water/powder ratio, and 31.095% at 0.33 water/powder ratio of the specimens' mass in regards to their initial dry weight. MTA did maintain a high pH for an extended period of time under these study conditions.