Antibacterial Properties of Four Endodontic Sealers

Antibacterial properties of four endodontic sealers Objectives: Successful endodontic treatment depends mainly on elimination of microorganisms. However, microorganisms might still survive the chemo-mechanical preparation, therefore root canal sealers with good sealing ability and antimicrobial activity are desired to entomb and kill the surviving bacteria. The purpose of this study was to evaluate root canal sealers for their antimicrobial effect. Methods: Enterococcus Faecalis was used as test microorganism. Antibacterial properties of 4 root canal sealers; AH plus, Apexit Plus, Epiphany SE and RoekoSeal, were measured by two methods: (i) Agar diffusion test (ADT) - wells punched in inoculated agar were filled with triplicate samples. Inhibition halos were measured after 48h at 37⁰C. (ii) Direct contact test (DCT) - 8 samples of each sealer were placed on the sidewalls of the wells in a 96 microtiter plate. Bacterial cells (1X10⁶) were placed on the surface of each sample for 1h at 37⁰C. Medium was then added to each well and bacterial growth was followed for 16h in a temperature-controlled spectrophotometer. Additional samples were immersed in phosphate-buffered-saline for 1, 2, 7 and 14 days. The aged samples were tested by DCT. Statistical analysis included two way ANOVA, one way ANOVA and Tukey multiple comparison. Results: In the ADT Apexit Plus exhibited a significant inhibition halo (3.1mm±0.2), AH plus showed a minimal inhibition halo (0.1mm±0.1). In the DCT, Apexit Plus demonstrated effective antibacterial ability for 1 day, whereas Epiphany SE demonstrated bacterial growth encouragement for at least 7 days. AH plus and RoekoSeal did not differ statistically from the control. Conclusion: In this study, Apexit Plus had a short term antibacterial effect on Enterococcus Faecalis, for the first 24 hours, whereas Epiphany SE demonstrated a potency to hasten bacterial growth to a higher bacterial density, for at list one week after mixing.