The effectiveness of root canal treatment depending on used sealer

Abstract

Objective – to determine the effectiveness of root canal treatment while using different groups of sealers based on a long-term result of radiological examination.Materials and methods. An analysis of the data of various types of X-ray examination (computed tomography, digital orthopantomography, and focused digital X-ray) of teeth where root canal treatment had been done using sealers based on zinc-oxide-eugenol or resorcinol-formalin (active sealers), or sealers based on epoxy resins (passive sealers) was performed. The radiological picture of 579 teeth, and 1120 roots, in particular, was evaluated based on radiological images of patients aged 18 to 68 years. Computer programs based on Microsoft Excel 2019 were used for the statistical processing of the research material.The results. Changes in periapical tissues were observed significantly less often when using sealers based on epoxy resins, on average at 27.42%. X-ray changes were absent for 21.92% more often when active sealers were used, which is probably due to a higher frequency of their use in the examined group of patients. It was found that in (62.67±3.95)% of cases, periapical changes were present when the level of obturation was more than 3 mm to the apex of the root and with the use of active sealers, while when using passive, periapical changes occurred significantly more often - in (82.43±4.42)%. It was determined that with preserved sealing of the orifice part, periapical changes were noticed in (55.71±3.43)% when using active sealers, while with broken sealing, these changes occurred more often - in (69.16±2.63)%. However, when using passive sealers and coronal leakage, periapical changes were only (30.84±2.63)%, which may indicate the high sealing properties of sealers based on epoxy resins.Conclusions. Periapical changes occurred significantly less often in the root canals of patients whose filling was performed with epoxy-based sealers, the absence of periapical changes was determined 27.42% more often than when using active sealers. At the obturation level of 3 mm and >3 mm to the apex of the root canal, filling with active sealers gave better efficiency due to a significantly lower number of complications in the form of periapical changes. Periapical changes occur much more often when there is coronal leakage, mainly when active sealers are used and constitute (69.16±2.63)% of cases.