Effectiveness of Various Final Irrigation Techniques on Sealer Penetration in Curved Roots: A Confocal Laser Scanning Microscopy Study

Objective. To compare the efficacy of various techniques used for final irrigation on sealer penetration in the apical one-third of curved root canals. Material and Methods. Sixty-five freshly extracted maxillary first molar teeth with mesiobuccal roots having more than 20° of root curvature were used. The root canals were instrumented and randomly divided into four experimental groups and one control group. In the 4 experimental groups, 3 ml of 17% EDTA followed by 3 ml of 5.25% NaOCl was delivered with the use of the following protocols: Group 1: manual dynamic activation (MDA), Group 2: sonic irrigation (SI), Group 3: passive ultrasonic irrigation (PUI), and Group 4: conventional needle irrigation (CI). All teeth were obturated with gutta-percha and AH Plus sealer labeled with fluorescent dye. Transverse sections at 2 mm and 4 mm distance from the root apex were examined with the aid of confocal laser scanning microscopy. Total percentage (%) and maximum depth (μm) of sealer penetration were measured. Results. All the experimental groups exhibited significantly higher penetration rates than the control group at both sections (p0.05). Conclusion. PUI, SI, and MDA did not significantly improve sealer penetration in the apical portion of curved root canals when compared to conventional needle irrigation.