The Effectiveness of Different Final Irrigation Protocols for Removal of Calcium Hydroxide Intracanal Medication from Root Canal

Calcium hydroxide is the most used intracanalar medicament between apointments. It shoud be properly removed before root canal filling because its remnants could compromise the sealing of root obturation. The aim of this study was to compare the effectiveness of two type of irrigation solutions, EDTA and SmearClear in the removal of calcium hydroxide from root canals. Materials and method: twenty human single rooted teeth were prepared using ProTaper Universal instrumentation till F2, .06 taper. The canals were filled with Ca(OH)₂ and after 7 days the Ca(OH)2 was removed using 3 rinses of 5 ml 15% EDTA and 5 ml 5.25% NaOCl alternately (group 1; n=10) or 3 rinses of 5 ml Smear Clear (SybronEndo) and 5 ml 5.25% NaOCl alternately (group 2; n=10). Results: On the final radiographs the best result was found in group 2 where the cleanliness of the total surface of the root canal wall when SmearClear was used obtained better results comparative to NaOCl – 15% EDTA (91.34% to 71.69%). Conclusions: under the limitation of this study, SmearClear was superior in removing Ca(OH)₂ material compared to NaOCl and 15% EDTA irrigation solution.