Comparision of dentin bond strength of four different root canal sealers applied with ultrasonic activation and manual technique

The primary goal of root canal treatment is to eliminate or prevent microbial infection in the root canal system. To prevent leakage and bacterial contamination that may arise from the coronal and apical regions, the root canal space needs to be filled. With a good root canal filling, the passage of periapical tissue fluids into the canal is prevented, and the microbial communities causing infection can be trapped in that area. Recently, the ultrasonic activation of root canal sealers has been considered to improve the quality of root canal filling. In our study, 80 single-rooted mandibular premolar teeth, extracted for various reasons and with completed root development, were used. To standardize the root length, the teeth were separated from their crowns using diamond burs under water cooling, leaving a remaining root length of 13 mm. The teeth were randomly divided into 8 groups, with 10 teeth in each group. The preparations of the teeth were completed using the FKG RACE EVO 35/0.06 file system, and four different root canal sealers were applied to the canals with and without ultrasonic activation using the single-cone technique. The teeth were divided into 8 groups based on the type of root canal sealer used and whether ultrasonic activation was applied or not. Group 1: AH Plus Bioceramic, Group 2: VDW.1Seal, Group 3: FKG TotalFill BC, Group 4: AH Plus, Group 5: AH Plus Bioceramic + Ultrasonic Activation, Group 6: VDW.1Seal + Ultrasonic Activation, Group 7: FKG TotalFill BC + Ultrasonic Activation, Group 8: AH Plus + Ultrasonic Activation. Then, 1 mm thick sections were taken from the coronal, middle, and apical regions of the teeth, and a push-out bond strength test was performed. The obtained data were statistically analyzed. In the groups where ultrasonic activation was not performed, statistically the highest bond strength was observed in the FKG TotalFill BC group in the coronal, middle, and apical regions, while the lowest bond strength was found in the AH Plus Bioceramic group in the coronal region, AH Plus in the middle region, and VDW.1Seal in the apical region. In the groups where ultrasonic activation was performed, there was no statistically significant difference in bond strength values in the coronal region. The highest bond strength was found in the FKG TotalFill BC group in the middle and apical regions, while the lowest bond strength was found in the VDW.1Seal group in the middle region and AH Plus Bioceramic group in the apical region. In the comparisons between the groups with and without ultrasonic activation, there was no statistically significant difference in bond strength values in the coronal region. In the middle region, the bond strength values of the VDW.1Seal group were found to be statistically higher in the group without ultrasonic activation compared to the group with ultrasonic activation. In the apical region, the bond strength values of the VDW.1Seal and AH Plus groups were found to be statistically higher in the groups with ultrasonic activation compared to the groups without activation. In conclusion, it was determined that ultrasonic activation increased the bond strength of sealers to dentin. Keywords: Ultrasonic activation, bond strength, push-out bond strength test, sealer activation, AH Plus Bioceramic, VDW.1Seal, FKG TotalFill BC, AH Plus