APICAL MICROLEAKAGE EVALUATION OF CONVENTIONAL AND CONTEMPORARY ENDODONTIC SEALERS - AN INVITRO STUDY

Root canal sealers are well known for filling the accessory canals, voids, and irregularities in the root canals, lubricate the obturation process, and seal the space between the dentinal wall and the root filling material creating a perfect hermetic seal. Thus the main aim of our study was to compare the ability of three different root canal sealers in providing a better sealing ability by evaluating their penetration depth.

Material And Methodology: 30 extracted teeth were obtained and divided into three groups according to the type of sealer used. In group 1 zinc oxide eugenol sealer, in group 2 AH plus sealer and in group 3 ceraseal bioceramic sealer was used. Root canal preparation and obturation was done using a single technique in all the samples. Micro-leakage was evaluated using methylene blue dye penetration method. Each tooth was split and dye penetration evaluations were done under stereomicroscope (20X magnification).

Results: the data was collected and analyzed using ANOVA one way test and found that dye penetration was least for group 2 and group 3 when compared to group 3. Suggesting ceraseal and AH plus sealer to be equally efficient when compared to zinc oxide eugenol sealer.

Conclusion: within the limitations of the study it can be concluded that the newer sealers like calcium based and epoxy based sealers can proved to be much better than the conventional zinc oxide eugenol sealers. Though, a complete leakage from the apical margins is unavoidable.