The effect of different sealer placement techniques on sealing Ability: An in vitro study

AIM: The aim of this in vitro study was to evaluate the sealing ability of an endodontic sealer following different techniques of its placement. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 119 permanent human anterior teeth were prepared by using manual Protaper(®) and randomly divided into three equal groups of 33 teeth each. The teeth were obturated with the cold lateral condensation technique and AH26 sealer which was placed by using the following: G1: rotary lentulo spiral; G2: manual lentulo spiral; and G3: master gutta-percha coating. The remaining 20 teeth served as positive and negative controls. The samples were immersed in the methylene blue solution for 3 days and longitudinally sectioned for dye penetration assessment and analyzed using a stereomicroscope. RESULTS: There was no statistically significant difference (P = 0.305) among the three groups. However, the rotary lentulo spiral technique and the master gutta-percha coating technique showed the highest (4.5 mm) and the lowest (3.8 mm) microleakage values, respectively. CONCLUSION: Different techniques of sealer placement used in this study provided a comparable seal. However, the master gutta-percha coating technique might be preferable because of its ease of use.