A Comparative Evaluation Of apical Sealing Ability of Differentro ot Canal Obturation Techniques- An In Vitro Study

A key to successful endodontics is complete sealing of both apical and coronal avenues of potential leakage and maintain disinfected status achieved by chemomechanical cleaning. Approximately 60% of endodontic failures are due to inadequate obturation of root canal system. Such failures occur due to penetration of substances from apical tissues into the canal. Obturation is the method used to fill and seal the cleaned and shaped root canal. Several obturation techniques have been introduced. The purpose of this in-vitro study was to do the comparative evaluation of apical sealing ability of different obturating techniques- cold lateral condensation, warm vertical condensation, thermoplasticized gutta percha technique (Beefill, VDW, Germany) and cold flowable gutta percha technique (GuttaFlow 2, Coltene, Whaledent, Inc). To compare the apical sealing ability of different obturation techniques and to measure the amount of apical leakage in teeth obturated with different techniques. 50 extracted non-carious mandibular single rooted premolars were selected. The samples were cleaned and stored in saline. Then samples were decoronated to standardised length of 16 mm with Joedandy diamond disc in slow speed straight hand piece. Working length was determined radiographically by size 15 K- file. All samples of Group 1 were instrumented to the working length using hand files (# 30 K file) and other Groups were prepared using M2 rotary files. During instrumentation, canals were irrigated with 5.25% NaOCl, then 17% EDTA and finally with saline. After that, root canals were dried with paper points and then samples were divided intoGroup 1: cold lateral condensation; Group 2: warm vertical condensation; Group 3: thermoplasticized gutta percha technique (BeeFill, VDW, Germany); Group 4: cold flowable gutta perca technique (GuttaFlow 2, Coltene, Whaledent, Inc); Group 5 was divided into positive and negative control groups. Teeth were stored at 37ºC in 100% humidity for 1 week. Samples were immersed in 2% methylene blue dye for 48 hours. The samples were embedded in clear acrylic and then vertical sectioning was done using Joedandy diamond disc. Sections were then examined under Stereomicroscope to access the level of dye penetration in apical third. The results were statistically analysed using One Way ANOVA and Post-hoc Tukey’s HSD test. It was observed that statistically significant difference was found in lateral condensation group, thermoplasticized group and GuttaFlow 2 group. Within the limitations of the study, it was concluded that, maximum dye penetration was shown by lateral condensation group followed by GuttaFlow 2 and warm vertical condensation. The thermoplasticized group showed least leakage.