Temperature Rise on the Plugger Surface of 2 Commercially Available Gutta-percha Heating Devices

Abstract

IntroductionThe objective of this study was to examine the temperature rise on the plugger surface of 2 commercially available gutta-percha heating devices: the System B (Kerr Dental, Amersfoort, The Netherlands) and the System B Cordless Pack Unit (Kerr Dental). MethodsTemperature changes were recorded by a Thermocouple Data Logger device (Pico Technology Ltd, St Neots, UK) and 2 thermocouples: the first to record the temperature on the plugger surface in an isolated polytetrafluoroethylene system and the second to record the base temperature of the environment. The gutta-percha heating devices studied were System B with F, FM, M, and ML pluggers set at the “use” position, “touch” mode, temperature of 200°C, and a power setting of 10 and the System B Cordless Pack Unit with the FM plugger set at low power. Two variables were extracted from the collected temperature data: the temperature on the plugger surface 10 seconds after activating each gutta-percha heating device (θ10) and the time required to reach 60°C (t60). The differences between the pluggers over those 2 variables were investigated using analysis of variance and the Tukey B test for post hoc comparisons (P < .05). ResultsThe mean θ10 for all pluggers ranged between 73°C and 87°C. The mean t60 for all pluggers ranged between 1.3 and 3.3 seconds. No clinically significant differences between the pluggers were observed. ConclusionsThe gutta-percha heating devices tested achieve maximum temperatures lower than 94°C and are capable of gutta-percha phase transformation within approximately 4 seconds of activation.