INTRODUCTION: The objective of this clinical study was to assess the long-term outcome (clinical signs/symptoms and radiographic healing) of teeth treated with apical surgery and mineral trioxide aggregate (MTA) for root-end filling.

METHODS: One hundred ninety-five patients were recalled 1, 5, and 10 years after apical surgery for clinical and radiographic examinations. Three calibrated observers evaluated the periapical radiographs independently. The evolution of the cases over time was analyzed. Healing classification of teeth was divided into "healed" versus "not healed" teeth using well-established clinical and radiographic healing criteria. The potential influence of sex, age, type of treated tooth, type of MTA, and first-time versus repeat surgery on healing outcome was statistically analyzed.

RESULTS: The inception cohort included 195 teeth. The dropout rate after 10 years amounted to 39% (n = 76). Of the 119 teeth available for the 10-year analysis, 97 teeth were classified as healed (81.5%). No significant differences were found with regard to the rate of healed cases for the subcategories of the parameters of age, sex, type of MTA, and first-time or repeat surgery. Concerning the type of treated tooth, the rate of healed maxillary molars (95.2%) differed significantly (P = .035) from the rate of healed maxillary premolars (66.7%). The predictive value of the cases classified as healed at 1 year and remaining so over the 10-year observation period was 86.8%.

CONCLUSIONS: This 10-year follow-up study of teeth treated with apical surgery and MTA as root-end filling material showed an acceptable rate of healed cases. Many of the lost teeth had been extracted because of longitudinal root fractures during the observation period.