Objectives: Gutta percha has been the material of choice for endodontic obturation since the early 1900's. Gutta Percha by itself has shown to exhibit minimal antimicrobial activity due to its Zinc content. In recent years experiments have shown that endodontic materials containing iodoform have an increased antimicrobial activity and may have a place in mainstream endodontic therapy. Studies have demonstrated the significance of the gram positive facultative anaerobe Enterococcus faecalis, in endodontic therapy failure. The purpose of this experiment was to test the ability of a commercially available iodoform gutta percha, to resist infiltration of E. faecalis using a microleakage model.

Methods: Seventy extracted single-rooted teeth were decoronated, leaving 12 mm of apical root. The canals were prepared to an apical size of 40 using .06 Profiles. After autoclaving, 30 roots were obturated laterally with iodoform gutta percha and another 30 with regular gutta percha. The remaining 10 roots were used for controls. The roots were then painted, except for the apical 2 mm, to seal any accessory canals and then suspended in sterile BHI broth. An innoculum of E. faecalis suspension was placed at the coronal end of each root, incubated and replenished daily. The apical broth was observed for turbidity, indicating bacterial microleakage.

Results: Samples were observed for 32 days and data was analyzed using a proportionality z-test to compare microleakage between the two groups. The results showed no significant difference between the iodoform and regular gutta percha samples (p>.05).

Conclusions: This experiment showed that the iodoform gutta percha did not delay microleakage of E. faecalis any better than regular gutta percha. According to these results, iodoform gutta percha may not present any advantage over regular gutta percha in delaying microleakage in vitro. Clinical studies are needed to substantiate this claim.

Back to the Dental Materials: VIII - Others-Non-metallic Program
Back to the IADR/AADR/CADR 82nd General Session (March 10-13, 2004)

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