Effect of Smear Layer Removal on Apical Seal of Obturated Teeth by Different Obturation Techniques

Abstract

Objective: A good apical sealing is considered the key of the successful endodontic treatments, and Smear layer is one of the factors that may affect the apical sealing. So for that, this study was to evaluate the effect of smear layer removal on apical seal of endodontical obturated teeth by different methods.

Materials and Methods: The 150 recently extracted, single-rooted, permanent human teeth was randomly divided into 3 equal groups according to the method of obturation (System B, MicroSeal or lateral cold condensation), and each group was divided equally into 2 sub-groups according to present or absent of smear layer.  The root canals were prepared using Hero642, and the teeth that had the smear layer removed were irrigated with 5.25% NaOCl in combination with 20.3% EDTA. After that the teeth were obturated with AH26 as a sealer. The teeth were placed in ablue methylene solution 2% and centrifuged.

Results: The apical seal was insignificantly improved when removing smear layer in teeth obturated by System B or MicroSeal, whereas the apical leakage was significantly reduced when removing smear layer from teeth obturated by Cold Lateral Condensation, and MicroSeal has the best apical seal followed by System B without a statistically insignificant, and cold lateral condensation was the third with a statistical significance (P<0.05).

Conclusion: removing a smear layer before the root canal obturation has no effect on the apical seal when using System B or MicroSeal, and that apical seal performed by these two techniques is better than that performed with Cold Lateral Condensation.