Evaluation of sealing abilitiy of mineral trioxide aggregate mixed with propylene glycol as a root canal sealer: Abacterial microleakage study

Abstract

Mineral trioxide aggregate (MTA) has many applications in endodontics. However, it has some drawbacks e.g. difficult handling. Propylene glycol (PG) has been recently mixed with MTA to improve its handling. Mixing with PG improves MTAs consistency and facilitates its placement into the canal. Thus, MTA-PG can potentially be used as root canal sealer. The main goal of the present study was to compare sealing ability of MTA-PG with two commonly used resin-(AH26) and MTA-based (MTA-fillapex) sealers. Meanwhile, MTA and PG both have hydrophilic characteristics and some moisture is needed for MTA-based sealers setting. The second goal of the present study was to evaluate the effect of canal moisture on sealing ability of MTA-PG sealer.Materials and Methods: Seventy extracted single root teeth were used in this study. Canals were prepared using hand and RaCe rotary files. Ten teeth were used as control. Remaining 60 teeth were randomly divided into following 4 groups (n=15): In group 1, the canals were dried using paper cones and obturated using MTA-PG sealer. In group 2, saline was removed from canal using a syring but paper cones were not used. In groups 3 and 4, the canals were dried using paper cones but obturated with AH26 and MTA-fillapex, respectively. Two-chamber method was used to evaluate bacterial leakage using Entrococcus faecalis (ATCC 29212). Turbidity of the lower chambers was checked every day during 90 day period. Kaplan-Miere analysis and Log-rank test were used to compare rate of bacterial leakage between groups. Chi-square test was used to compare groups regarding leaked samples at the end of the study.Results: There was not any significant difference among groups regarding rate of leakage during study. However, at the end of the study the groups were statistically different regarding leaked samples (P=0.034). MTA-fillapex and MTA-PG in dry canal showed the most and least leaked samples at the end of the study, respectively(p <0.05).Conclusion: MTA mixed with PG has superior sealing ability than MTA-fillapex.