Objective The aim of this systematic review was to assess the effectiveness of different post and core techniques on restoration of endodontically treated teeth. Methods The literature search was complemented by manual searching. Randomized or quasi-randomized controlled clinical trails about the failure of different post and core restorations in treatment of endodontically treated teeth were collected. The quality of the included studies was assessed. Results From 2 100 titles after the literature search, six articles met the inclusion criteria. Three were comparative evaluations of fiber post and metal post, the short term result indicated that there were no significant differences in failure rate of fiber post and metal post; and the others were the clinical evaluations of fiber post and restoration without post, the conclusion of superiority of metal post or fiber post could not be made in such a middle term result, but the results indicated that when no coronal wall was retained but ferrule effect obtained, fiber post restoration had favorable clinical outcome than no post restoration. Conclusion The use of fiber post can increase the survival rate of endodontically treated teeth when teeth missing all the coronal walls regardless of the presence or absence of a ferrule effect. The clinical outcomes have no differences no matter the post and core system is fiber post or metal post. But more randomized controlled trials are needed to confirm this conclusion.
