Assessment of the sealing abilities of several root canal sealers and filling methods

Abstract Objective. To evaluate the sealing abilities of two root canal sealers (epoxy resin-based AH Plus® and polydimethylsiloxane-based GuttaFlow®) and of five root filling techniques (lateral condensation, matched taper single gutta-percha point, laterally condensed-matched taper gutta-percha point, Thermafil® and continuous wave of condensation), using a bacterial leakage model. Materials and methods. One hundred and seventy-four single-rooted human teeth were randomly divided into 10 test groups (n = 15) and two control groups (n = 12). The roots that were filled with the test material, using the different root filling techniques, were mounted in a two-chamber bacterial leakage model and Enterococcus faecalis was added to the upper chambers. The lower chambers of all of the specimens were checked every day during the test period (100 days). The day of turbidity was recorded for each sample. Statistical analysis was performed using the Kaplan-Meier and log-rank tests. Results. There was no significant difference between the epoxy resin-based and the polydimethylsiloxane-based sealers, irrespective of the filling techniques used (p > 0.05). The continuous wave of condensation technique was found to be superior to the other techniques (p < 0.05). The difference between the other groups was insignificant (p > 0.05). Conclusions. AH Plus and GuttaFlow sealers showed similar levels of sealing ability. The continuous wave of condensation technique had the best sealing capability when compared to the other techniques.