Antimicrobial efficacy of Er,Cr:YSGG laser-activated irrigation compared with passive ultrasonic irrigation and RinsEndo(®) against intracanal Enterococcus faecalis.

Abstract

The aim of this study was to evaluate the antibacterial efficacy of active irrigation techniques: Erbium, chromium: yttrium, scandium, gallium, garnet (Er,Cr:YSGG) laser-activated irrigation (LAI), passive ultrasonic irrigation (PUI), RinsEndo(®), and conventional syringe irrigation, against intracanal Enterococcus faecalis. Root canals of 100 human extracted teeth were instrumented, sterilized in plasma, contaminated with E. faecalis, and incubated for 10 days. The samples were randomly distributed into four experimental groups (n=20 each): I: LAI by Er,Cr:YSGG (1.25 W, 20 Hz) for 4×5 sec; II. PUI for 60 sec; III. RinsEndo(®) system for 60 sec; IV. 30 gauge syringe irrigation for 60 sec; and one positive control group (n=10). In all experimental groups, 2.5% sodium hypochlorite (NaOCl) was used as an irrigant, whereas the positive controls were rinsed with saline. The root canals were sampled by flushing with saline solution before and after the treatments, serially diluted, and cultured. The presence or absence of E. faecalis in the root canals was checked by polymerase chain reaction. There were no differences among the three active irrigation techniques (p>0.05), which were more effective than the conventional syringe irrigation (p<0.001). LAI, PUI, and RinsEndo were equally effective in the elimination of intracanal 10-day-old E. faecalis. However, LAI generated more negative bacterial samples, which warrants further investigations.