Reduced Long-term Sealing Ability of Adhesive Root Fillings after Water-storage Stress

This study was designed to compare in vitro the short-term and long-term ability to prevent through-and-through fluid movement along Resilon/Epiphany root fillings. A sample of 40 human upper incisors were prepared and assigned to experimental groups of 20 teeth each, designated as G1, Resilon/Epiphany, and G2, gutta-percha/AH Plus. Additional 10 teeth were used as controls. Each tooth was assembled in a hermetic cell to allow the evaluation of fluid filtration. After the root filling procedures, the filled roots were stored at 37°C and 100% humidity for 7 days to allow setting of the sealer. Forthwith, the teeth were submitted to the first fluid flow measurement. Leakage was measured by the movement of an air bubble traveling within a pipette connected to the teeth. Shortly after the measurements, the teeth were detached from the hermetic cell and then stored in water for 14 months at 37°C. At this moment, fluid filtration was re-measured. Both Kruskal-Wallis and Wilcoxon signed rank tests were applied to detect differences between the experimental groups. No differences were found between the experimental groups during the immediate measure (P > .05), whereas Resilon/Epiphany group displayed significantly more fluid movement than the gutta-percha/AH Plus group after 14 months of water storage (P < .05). The water-storage stress had no significant effect on the sealing ability of the gutta-percha/AH Plus root fillings (P > .05). The main point of our study is the fact that long-term sealing was compromised in the Resilon/Epiphany samples, when exposed to long-term water storage.