COMPARATIVE EVALUATION OF THE APICAL SEALING ABILITY OF FOUR DENTAL MATERIALS USED IN ENDODONTIC SURGERY – AN IN VITRO STUDY

Abstract

The aim of this in vitro study was to assess dye microleakage and sealing ability of four dental materials: a polycarboxilate cement (Adhesor Carbofine^® - Spofa Dental), a glass ionomer cement (Kavitan Plus^®- Spofa Dental), a composite resin (Core-It^®- SpiDent) and a MTA based cement (MTA Fillapex^®- Angelus). Forty, extracted, human teeth with single root canals were selected for this study. The teeth were randomly divided into four study groups and one control group. The root canals were instrumented and filled with gutta-percha and sealer. Root-ends were resected, and 3 mm deep cavities were prepared. Root-end cavities were filled, each with a type of material. Methylene blue dye was used for determination of dye leakage. Afterwards, Scanning Electron Microscopy was used to evaluate the sealing ability of each material. Kolgorow-smirnow z test was used to determine the type of data distribution. One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) followed by a Tukey test were used to determine the statistical difference between groups, with P < 0.05 set as significant. All the four sealers produced apical leakage to a certain extent and there was no statistically significant difference between the five experimental groups. For SEM evaluation, the results showed that there is a statistically significant difference between the control group and the Adhesor Carbofine group. MTA based cement provides leakage results comparable to other commonly used root-end filling materials.