Assessment of Efficiency of Diode Laser in Root Canal Disinfection: An Original Research.

Introduction: For the complete removal of the intracanal debris and the infectious agents, the intracanal irrigation plays a significant role. Hence, in our study, we assessed the efficiency of diode laser in root canal disinfection. Materials and
Methods: We conducted an in vitro study on 45 extracted single noncarious teeth. We equally divided the teeth into controls, Endovac, and diode laser. Later the mean colony-forming units (MCFU) of the Enterococcus faecalis were calculated and compared statistically.
Results: We observed that the MCFU in the controls, Endovac, and diode laser was 108/ml, 104/ml, and 0, respectively, after the incubation.
Conclusion: We can conclude that diode laser can be successful in irrigation of the root canals. Copyright:

INTRODUCTION

One of the most common procedures that the dental clinicians perform is the root canal therapy. The success of this treatment rests on the skill of the dentist as well as the thorough removal of the infectious organisms of the root canal.[123] Among the most common inhabitants of the root canal are the Enterococcus faecalis. These are found in the depths of the root canal and are tough to be irrigated out. The recent irrigation systems commonly used are the Endovac, lasers, etc. Previous studies have only compared the Endovac with the conventional irrigation techniques.[456] Hence, in our study, we assessed the efficiency of diode laser in root canal disinfection by comparing others.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

We conducted an in vitro study with 45 single-rooted noncarious teeth. The ethics clearance was obtained for the study. We excluded all the teeth that were restored, with any anomaly, fractured, or attrited. The teeth were grouped into three with 15 teeth in each group. They were divided as controls-cleaned and shaped and no irrigation was done, Endovac irrigation-as micro-irrigation with 5.25% sodium hypochlorite, and the 908 nm diode laser.

After the biomechanical preperation, canals were inoculated with the E. faecalis and incubated. Later the mean colony-forming units (MCFU) were counted and compared between the groups by the analysis of variance. P < 0.05 was considered statistically significant.

RESULTS

We observed that the MCFU in the controls, Endovac, and diode laser were 108/ml, 104/ml, and 0, respectively, after the incubation. This was statistically significant [Graph 1]. When we observed for the level of the disinfection obtained in the three groups by comparing the cultures of the E. faecalis, in the controls <2% disinfection was obtained, in the Endovac 65% and in the diode laser 90% disinfection was seen cases [Graph 2].

Graph 1

The mean colony-forming units among the various groups

Graph 2

Level of the disinfection among the groups

DISCUSSION

One of the most accepted factors identified for the endodontic failures is the infectious agents retained in the root canal. The most common irrigants are sodium hypochlorite and the chlorhexidine. Some authors have reported the adverse effect of the chemical agents used as irrigants.[789] Hence to overcome this lasers were introduced. Some authors have shown that laser along with other irrigation methods have shown to lower the infective agents in the canal after the debridement. Hence, in our study, we aimed to study the effect of the diode laser while comparing with the recent Endovac and no irrigation at all. We studied the most commonly found bacteria in the root canal and compared between the groups, i.e., E. faecalis. We observed a significant lowering of the bacterial colonies in the endovac and the laser groups than the controls. This is similar to the study of Manikandan et al.[8] and Moriĵ et al.,[9] where they observed lower bacterial counts after the application of the sodium hypo and diode laser (890 nm). We have obtained increased ability of the diode laser in the root canal disinfection that was evident by the significant variation between the groups. The limitation of the study was that it was an in vitro study. Furthermore, only single-rooted teeth are considered for our study. Further studies in the clinical setup are suggested.

CONCLUSION

We can conclude that diode laser can be effective in the removal of the infectious agents in the root canal. We suggest the application of the diode lasers in clinical setups.

Financial support and sponsorship

Nil.

Conflicts of interest

There are no conflicts of interest.