A Comparative Confocal Microscopic Evaluation on Depth of Penetration into Dentinal Tubules Using Chloroquick, 10% Citric Acid and 17% EDTA

Abstract Aim: To evaluate the depth of penetration of Rhodamine B dye into dentinal tubules using Chloroquick, 10% Citric acid and 17% EDTA under Confocal laser scanning microscope. Materials and Methods: Thirty single-rooted human mandibular premolars with fully formed apices were selected. Root canal preparation was done with ProTaper Next, until size X3. Teeth were divided into three groups based on the irrigation protocol as Group 1: Chloroquick, Group 2:10% Citric acid, Group 3:17% EDTA. For fluorescence inspection, 5ml of labeled NaOCl was used for irrigating each canal and accompanied by manual dynamic agitation using master gutta percha points. Horizontal sectioning was performed into 1mm thick sections at apical third, middle third and coronal thirds and underwent examination by CLSM at 10x magnification and 580nm wavelength. Statistical analysis was performed using Two-way ANOVA analysis to investigate the depth of penetration of groups. Results: The results showed that coronal third exhibited the highest depth of penetration followed by middle third and least for apical third. 10% Citric acid at coronal third exhibited highest depth of penetration while Chloroquick showed least penetration in all three regions. Conclusion: Chloroquick, 10% Citric acid and 17% EDTA promoted cleaning ability and penetration of dentinal tubules while 10% Citric acid group has exhibited higher penetration depth when compared to other groups.