Obturation of root canals with different sealers using non-instrumentationtechnology

Aim To evaluate and compare the,sealing quality of hand- or vacuum-obturate d root canals after hand preparation or hydrodynamic cleansing of root cana ls, respectively, Methodology After assessing root curvature, 96 single-rooted deep-frozen te eth were divided into eight comparable groups, The root canals of four grou ps were instrumented with the balanced force technique. The remaining unins trumented teeth were connected to a reduced-pressure device (NIT) and the r oot-canal system perfused with 2.5% NaOCl under alternating pressure fields , This dissolved the pulpal tissues and removed debris from the root-canal system. The canals of the hand-instrumented groups were obturated using the cold lateral condensation method with guttapercha and one of four differen t sealers (AH26, AH Plus, Apexit and Pulp Canal Sealer EWT), The teeth trea ted with the alternating pressure device (NIT) were obturated by a vacuum o bturation method (NIT) with the same four sealers. The quality of the coron al seal was assessed using a dye penetration method, In order to minimize e rrors the roots were perfused with water before exposure to the dye, under vacuum. The teeth were then rendered transparent and the depth of penetrati on of the dye between the wall of the canal and the obturating material was measured with a stereomicroscope. Results The canals cleaned and filled by NIT showed statistically significa ntly less dye penetration than those obturated by lateral condensation (P < 0.05), Within the NIT group, Pulp Canal Sealer EWT exhibited significantly more dye penetration than Apexit. Amongst the control lateral condensation groups no significant differences were found between the various sealers, Conclusions The present investigation demonstrated the validity of the NIT obturation method in combination with commonly used root-canal sealers.