Efficacy of Removing Thermafil and GuttaCore from Straight Root Canal Systems Using a Novel Non-Surgical Root Canal Re-Treatment System: A Micro-Computed Tomography Analysis

Abstract

The present study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of an XP-endo non-surgical root canal re-treatment system in removing both GuttaCore and Thermafil gutta-percha carrier-based root canal filling materials from straight root canal systems using micro-computed tomography (micro-CT) analysis. The study was performed on 20 single-rooted upper teeth, which were randomly allocated into the following study groups: Group A, Thermafil and AH Plus sealer (n = 10); Group B, GuttaCore and AH Plus sealer (n = 10). Before and after the non-surgical root canal re-treatment procedure, the samples were submitted for a micro-CT analysis. The volume of the root canal filling material (mm3), the volume of the remaining root canal filling material (mm3) and the time (minutes) needed to remove the root canal filling material were also recorded. Student’s t-test was used to analyze the results. No statistically significant differences were found between the volume of the remaining root canal filling material in the GuttaCore and Thermafil root canal filling systems at the coronal third (p = 0.782), middle third (p = 0.838) or apical third (p = 0.882) of the straight root canal systems; however, the GuttaCore required a statistically significant (p = 0.037) shorter amount of time (4.72 ± 0.76 min) to be removed than the Thermafil carrier-based root canal filling material (5.92 ± 1.42 min). The XP-endo Finisher non-surgical endodontic re-treatment system removes both GuttaCore and Thermafil gutta-percha carrier-based root canal filling materials from straight root canal systems, although removal of the GuttaCore gutta-percha carrier-based root canal filling material required less time.