EFFECT OF DIFFERENT ACCESS CAVITY DESIGNS ON THE CLEANLINESS OF ROOT CANAL SYSTEM IN ENDODONTICALLY TREATED TEETH (AN IN-VITRO STUDY)

Mai Abdullah*, Tariq Yehia Abdelrahman and Maram Farouk Obeid

ABSTRACT

Objevtive: To evaluate the cleanliness of the root canal system after endodontic treatment of teeth with 4 different access cavity designs: Traditional, conservative, ninja and truss endodontic access cavity designs in terms of amount of debris and smear layer. Material and Methods: Sixty freshly extracted mandibular molars with moderate mesial root curvature were collected. Sample size used in this study was 60 mandibular molars, (n=120). They were divided into four groups (n=30), Group 1: Traditional endodontic access cavity (TEC), Group 2: Conservative endodontic access cavity (CEC), Group 3: Ninja endodontic access cavity (NEC), and Group 4: Truss endodontic access cavity (TREC). All canals were instrumented and prepared for scanning electron microscope evaluation (SEM). SEM images were taken x500 and x1500 for debris and smear layer evaluation in three areas of the root canal. Scoring system was proposed by Hülsmann et al (1997).[26] After data collection, data were presented in terms of mean ± SD using Minitab 19 program. Results: In terms of remaining debris, no significant difference was found in all groups. In terms of remaining smear layer, there was a significant difference between values in TEC, TREC and NEC. Conclusion: Within the limitation of this study, we can conclude that, access cavity design had no effect on root canal cleanliness at different canal levels.

Keywords: Access cavity. Cleanliness. Scanning electron microscope. Debris. Smear layer.