EFFECT OF A FINAL ALCOHOL RINSE ON SEALER COVERAGE OF OBTURATED ROOT CANALS

An endodontic sealer is required to provide an apical and coronal seal in root canals, No previously reported methods of sealer placement co mpletely coated canal walls, The purpose of this study was to dehydrat e canal walls with alcohol and determine if this permitted better seal er coverage, Forty single-rooted teeth were prepared and divided into 4 groups of 10 teeth according to method of sealer placement and final irrigant: (a) by lentulo spiral and (b) file NaOCl, (c) lentulo and a lcohol, and (d) file and alcohol, After canal preparation, groups 1 an d 2 were irrigated with 1 mi of NaOCl and dried with paper points, Gro ups 3 and 4 were irrigated with 1 mi of alcohol and dried, AH26 (0.04 mi) dyed with charcoal black was applied to the apical end of the file or lentulo and placed in the canal to coat the walls, Gutta-percha wi thout additional sealer was laterally condensed, Teeth were cleared an d evaluated for location and amount of sealer visible, Data were evalu ated by Kruskal-Wallis and analysis of variance, The results showed (a ) no significant differences among the four groups, (b) all areas had sealer present, (c) the coronal third had >50% sealer coverage in near ly all teeth, and (d) the middle and apical thirds showed the most var iability in sealer coverage.