A supplemental appendix to this article is published electronically only at http://jdr.sagepub.com/supplemental. AbstrActThe use of calcium hydroxide (CH) as an intracanal medicament for apexification is widespread. However, because of a short residence time in the root canal, the CH must be refreshed frequently, increasing the number of appointments required and leading to patient non-compliance. We hypothesized that a core-/shell-structured CH microsphere system would lead to sustained slow release of calcium and hydroxide ions of CH for long periods of time, eliminating the need for multiple visits for apexification. In this study, calcium hydroxide microspheres (CHMSs) with a core/shell structure were prepared by an emulsion method. The CHMS shell was composed of alginate, which was crosslinked by the Ca 2+