Composition and functional groups evaluation of Indonesian Grey Portland cement as material for dental application

Tricalcium silicates cement known as Mineral Trioxide Aggregate (MTA) was one of the influential materials in endodontics. At recent, MTA in dental application play an essential role in endodontics treatment due to its potential to regenerate tertiary dentine, apexification, and seal perforated root. However, MTA for dental application is still expensive. Portland cement has similarities with the MTA, especially portland cement fabricated in Indonesia. The purpose of this study is to investigate the composition and functional groups of tricalcium silicate from portland cement that fabricated in Indonesia. The Indonesian grey portland cement powder/portland cement type I (SNI-15-7064-2014) was used as a sample and commercialized MTA from Tehnodent (Rootdent) was used as a control for comparison. Powder and control samples were evaluated using X-ray fluorescence spectrometry (XRF) for composition test and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) for functional group analyses. The XRF evaluation showed that the composition and concentration of Indonesian grey portland cement powder almost has similarity with commercial MTA. Moreover, the Indonesian grey portland cement powder has higher Calcium and Silicon ions compared to MTA. The FTIR analyses revealed that the calcium silicate groups were detected. In conclusion, the Indonesian grey portland cement powder has high similarity to MTA, therefore, it has a possibility to be used as tricalcium silicate cement for MTA substitution. Further study is awaited based on this initial finding found in this study.