Comparison of different irrigation systems on removal of filling material from root canals: A micro-ct evaluation

When the root canal treatment, for various reasons, results in failure the preferred treatment should be Retreatment. In order for the Retreatment to be successfully performed, the filling materials in the root canal should be completely disposed of and the canal should be properly disinfected. Due to the oval canal shape of the lower premolars, it is more difficult for the filling materials to be disposed of. Generally, various hand files, rotary files and irrigation techniques are used for the disposal of the filling materials. For a more efficient disposal ultrasonic-sonic irrigation systems are utilized in root canal treatment. This study was conducted on 24 lower premolar teeth, different techniques for filling disposal were examined: syringe irrigation compared to Endoactivator, VDW Ultra and LM Mectron devices. A micro-ct was used for the examination. The canal filling obtained from the canal treatment and retreatment options were evaluated. The statistical analysis of the results were based on The Wilcoxon and The Kruksal Wallis tests. According to the results, even though, using ultrasonic washing devices seem more convenient and successful in cleaning of the canal compared to syringe washing, statisically there was no significant difference between the two (p>0.05). There was no evidence of "moving away" in the treated group; further more, the volume difference in observed in apikal 1/3 section was the least in this group. Key Words: ultrasonics, micro-ct, endoactivator, vdw ultra The present work was supported by the Research Fund of Istanbul University. Project No. 27278