Journal of Dental Medicine

Background and Aim: Root filling materials are usually in close contact with living tissues. So their biological properties like mutagenicity and cytotoxicity are important. These properties help us determine the potential damage to periapical tissues, or potential DNA mutations, and malignant transformation of the cells. The aim of this study was to evaluate the mutagenicity and cytotoxicity of four root canal sealers: AH Plus (Dentsply, DeTrey), Ketac-Endo Aplicap (3M ESPE), Sankin Apatite III (Sankin K.K), and Tubli-Seal EWT (Kerr).

Materials and Methods: In this experimental in vitro study fresh and set specimens from AH Plus, Ketac-Endo Aplicap, Sankin Apatite III, and Tubli-Seal EWT were immersed in culture medium for 1, 2 and 7 days. Cytotoxicity was assessed using tetrazolium bromide reduction assay (MTT) after 1, 2 and 7 days exposure of diluted extracts to L929 cells. Extracts of sealers in phosphate buffer saline (PBS) were used to examine the mutagenic effects by sos-umu test according to standard procedures. Data were analyzed using one way ANOVA, Kruskall Wallis, Mann Whitney and Post hoc tests with P<0.05 as the level of significance.

Results: Extracts of all freshly mixed sealers were cytotoxic. Ketac-Endo Aplicap and Sankin Apatite III showed the lowest toxicity respectively and Tubli-Seal EWT the highest. In contrast to other sealers, the cytotoxicity of Tubli-Seal showed no decrease with time. -galactosidase did not increase significantly thus none of the sealers showed mutagenic effects.

Conclusion: Based on the results of this study, Tubli-Seal EWT showed the highest cytotoxicity with time. Other sealers showed decreasing cytotoxicity with time. No mutagenicity effects was observed in none of  tested materials.

Background and Aim: Complete obturation of the prepared root canal is an essential step in endodontic treatment. Combination of gutta-percha and a sealer is widely used in clinical practice for root canal obturation, thus microleakage studies on sealing properties of these materials constitute an important part of endodontic researches. The aim of this study was to evaluate the microleakage of three root canal sealers: Apexit, AH26 and Dorifill by electrochemical method.

Materials and Methods: In this experimental study, 55 extracted human maxillary and mandibular cuspids were used. The coronal part of teeth were removed and the root canals were prepared using the step-back technique. The specimens were randomly divided into 3 groups of 17 samples each. Teeth in each group were filled with one of the sealers and gutta-percha by lateral condensation technique. 4 specimens served as positive and negative controls. An electrochemical method was used for evaluation of apical leakage with the electrical source potential of 10 V. Measurements of current flow through the test system were recorded every 72 hours. Data were analyzed by Kruskall Wallis and Mann Whitney tests. P<0.05 was considered as the level of significance.

Results: All specimens of the three groups showed low initial leakage that increased during the test period. The mean leakage in Apexit group was higher than AH26 and Dorifill groups. The lowest mean leakage was related to Dorifill group. Although no statistically significant difference was observed between this sealer and AH26.

Conclusion: The results of this study revealed that the best apical seal was obtained using Dorifill and AH26 sealers. The poorest result was observed in Apexit.

Background and Aims: Insolubility has been stated as one of the important characteristics of the materials which are used as sealers in the endodontic treatments. The aim of this study was to evaluate the solubility of four endodontic sealers (ZOE, Dorifill, AH26 and Tubliseal).

Materials and Methods: Five specimens from each sealer with similar size were prepared. After first weighing, the samples were stored individually in bottles containing 50 ml of distilled water at 37ºC. After 7 days, the specimens weighed and changes in the weight of each sample recorded with a digital scale. The data were analyzed by ANOVA and Post-hoc Tukey HSD tests.

Results: The results of this study indicated that Dorifill had the maximum solubility among all sealers with weight loss of 2.8%. Tubliseal and ZOE showed the weight loss of 1.4% and 2.3%, respectively. AH26 showed weight gain of 1.9% during 7 days. There were no significant differences in the mean weight changes between Dorifill, Tubliseal and ZOE groups (P>0.05). A significant difference was found between the mean weight changes of AH26 and that of the other groups (P=0.000).

Conclusion: From the results of this study, all tested sealers were in the standard limit of solubility, and thus, it could confirm this physical property of sealers for clinical applications.