Removal efficacy of propolis/calcium hydroxide medicaments from the root canal

Objective: To compare the removal efficacy of propolis and calcium hydroxide medicaments from the root canal using manual irrigation with sodium hypochlorite.

Methods: A randomized controlled trial was conducted at the Department of Restorative Dentistry and Endodontics, College of Dentistry, King Faisal University for two months. Thirty single-rooted upper or lower permanent anterior teeth with sound root and closed apex were selected. After cleaning and shaping of canal by protaper rotary, teeth were randomly divided into two groups. In group “A,” propolis paste was placed while calcium hydroxide was placed inside root canals in group “B,” followed by temporary restoration. After seven days, intracanal medicament was removed using 25 # K file and irrigated canal by 5 ml of 3.0% sodium hypochlorite. A final irrigation of 2-ml of 17% EDTA for three minutes followed by 1-ml of normal saline was performed. A diamond disc was used to cut the crowns of the teeth from cemento-enamel junction and divide the roots into two halves. These sectioned halves were then observed under a stereomicroscope at 7X magnification and analyzed using Adobe Photoshop. Magnetic lasso tool was used to calculate the percentage of residual medicament in the canals by comparing the pixel proportion of the medicament with the total pixel proportion of the canal. Paired t-test was used to see the difference in the number of remaining remnants between propolis and calcium hydroxide. A p-value of less than 0.5 was considered statistically significant.

Results: A statistically significant difference (p-value < 0.001) was observed in the percentage of remaining remnants between propolis (23.22%) and calcium hydroxide (38.58%) after thorough irrigation with sodium hypochlorite.

Conclusion: Propolis is superior to calcium hydroxide in terms of their removal potency from the root canal after thorough irrigation with sodium hypochlorite.