Secondary protective seal of root canal fillings performed under simulated clinical conditions

Resumo

Objective: This study evaluated sealing properties of root canal fillings
with an additional composite barrier. The null hypothesis tested was that
different sealers and different methods of sealer removal did not influence
microleakage. Material and methods: Eighty extracted human molars
with fully mature apices had root canal prepared to size 60 taper .02
and divided into eight groups: three experimental groups for each sealer
and negative/positive control (n = 10 each). Teeth of experimental groups
were mounted into the molar region of a training puppet to simulate
clinical conditions. Root canals were filled with AH Plus or GuttaFlow
and gutta-percha. Excess sealer was removed with: ethanol-moistened
foam pellet only, additional preparation with a water-cooled diamond
bur or additional etch-and-rinse procedure (37% phosphoric acid gel). All
procedures were carried out until clean as judged by the naked eye. In
all groups except the positive control Syntac was applied to the access
cavity. Tetric flow was applied in two increments of 1 mm each. A dye
penetration test was carried out by centrifugation for 3 min at 30 G
within 5% methylene blue dye. Statistical evaluation was carried out with
PASW 18.0 (α = 0.05). Results: Although the two sealers had different
chemical composition, sealer exhibited no influence on the results,
whereas technique of sealer removal did (Two-way-ANOVA, p < 0.001).
Groups with “foam pellet” or “bur preparation” showed significantly more
leakage than groups with “etch-and rinse” (SNK, p < 0.05). Conclusion:
Applying an etch-and-rinse procedure prior to Syntac may be beneficial
for the adhesive seal over root canal fillings.