(PR44) Removal of Intracanal Medicaments: in Vitro Study With MicroCT Analysis

Calcium hydroxide (Ca(OH)₂) is the gold standard in treatment for an interappointment medicament in endodontics, but it is imperative to remove all the medicament before obturation. Studies suggest that mechanical agitation is effective at removal of this medicament. Recently, Endosequence BC Temp (Brasseler, Savannah, GA) was introduced as an efficient intracanal medicament that has optimal pH, high radiopacity, and containing calcium silicate. The objective of this study is to evaluate ease of removal of BC Temp as compared to Ca(OH)₂ using MicroCT and to analyze the volume of material left behind after mechanical agitation. 10 single-rooted teeth were prepared to size 35/0.04 with Endosequence Scout. BC Temp and Ca(OH)₂ were applied with Lentulo spiral to five teeth. Teeth were scanned using the MicroCT and placed in 100% humidity at 37°C. After 15 days the medicament was removed by agitating EDTA with XP-Finisher for 20s, which was replenished and agitated three times per tooth. The teeth were scanned using MicroCT again. We analyzed our preliminary results with a Mann-Whitney test (p < 0.05). Our preliminary results indicate that, on average, the BC Temp had a 91.57% reduction in medicament volume and Ca(OH)₂ had a 99.29% reduction in medicament volume after the removal procedure. We reject the null hypothesis that there is no difference in ease of removal between medicaments (p=0.008). Our preliminary results demonstrate that BC Temp is significantly more difficult to remove as compared to Ca(OH)₂.