Apical Leakage of Thermafil and LateralCompaction Techniques. Part II: Sealer Ketac Endo

Overview

Thermafil, as a warm guttapercha technique, is supposed to overcome somedisadvantages of cold lateral compaction. To compare whether it also offers a comparable apicalseal, was the question/aim of this study. Ketac Endo was applied both as a sealer and pastefilling in this study. Extracted teeth were instrumented with K-files and a step-back technique,with master apical file size ISO 40. Filled teeth were immersed in 1% methylene blue for oneweek. The results showed similar results in all the groups: Thermafil (2.035 mm), lateralcompaction (2.225 mm) and Ketac Endo (2.365 mm). There was no statistically significantdifference between any of the paired groups (p > 0.05). The use of Ketac Endo with its shortworking time seems to be preferable in conjunction with warm guttapercha techniques, ratherthan with time consuming lateral compaction.

Key words:
Thermafil – lateral compaction – leakage – Ketac Endo