Assessment of apical sealing of three warm obturation techniques in the presence of fractured NiTi rotary instruments

Abstract

The purpose of the present study was to compare the sealingability of three warm obturation techniques (thermo-plasticizedgutta-percha): Schilders warm vertical compaction, McSpadden’sthermo-mechanical compaction and Thermafi l (Dentsply-Maillefer)in teeth fractured at the apical region. 30 extracted, single-rootedteeth were prepared with Pro-Taper (Dentsply-Maillefer). At theapical third of each of these teeth, ProTaper F3 rotary instrumentswere deliberately fractured. Teeth were randomly divided into threegroups (n = 10) to be later filled with the selected technique, sothat with dye penetration technique and with the aid of discoloringteeth technique, teeth could be microscopically assessed so asto determine the amount of apical microfi ltration elicited in everytechnique. In all groups, specimens presented some degree ofapical microfi ltration. Teeth fi lled with Thermafi l presented 3,134μm average microfiltration. This microfiltration was significantlyhigher than the one observed with McSpadden thermo-mechanicaltechnique and Schilder’s vertical compaction technique (p <0.05). These two techniques presented 1,934 μm and 2,083μm respectively. McSpadden and Schilder´s technique show nostatistically signifi cant microfi ltration differences (p > 0.05).