Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2022 Jan 23;14(1):e21525.
doi: 10.7759/cureus.21525. eCollection 2022 Jan.

Effect of Chemical Debridement and Irrigant Activation on Endodontic Treatment Outcomes: An Updated Overview

Nesreen Tashkandi  1 , Faisal Alghamdi  2
Affiliations
Review

Effect of Chemical Debridement and Irrigant Activation on Endodontic Treatment Outcomes: An Updated Overview

Nesreen Tashkandi et al. Cureus. .

Abstract

Chemical debridement is considered one of the most important steps during root canal treatment to target unreached areas and provide thorough disinfection of the canals. The efficiency of this step efficiency can be increased using different agitation and irrigation techniques/devices. This comprehensive review aimed to summarize the effect of various irrigant activation and agitation techniques/devices on endodontic treatment outcomes. Using mechanical active irrigation, which enables the activation or agitation of the irrigating solution, is beneficial in root canal treatment by increasing the efficiency of delivering the irrigant up to working length and ensuring isthmus cleanliness. However, considerable variation was noticed between the protocols used in each technique with a lack of well-designed randomized clinical trials to focus on the long-term outcome. Moreover, a low level of evidence was noticed regarding the effectiveness of certain activation techniques over others. Therefore, each study needs to be carefully weighed before using its results and embracing its conclusion. Future studies need to focus more on the antimicrobial effect of each technique and its effect on the healing of apical periodontitis. Also, recent advances, such as multisonic and laser activation, are promising tools that need more clinical investigations to show their efficiency.

Keywords: debridement; endodontics; intracanal irrigants; outcome; review.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Flow chart of different irrigant activation and agitation techniques/devices
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Effects of mechanical and chemical procedures on root canal surfaces. Gulabivala K, Patel B, Evans G, Ng YL. Endod Topics. 2005;10:103–122.
    1. Effects of four Ni-Ti preparation techniques on root canal geometry assessed by micro computed tomography. Peters OA, Schönenberger K, Laib A. Int Endod J. 2001;34:221–230. - PubMed
    1. Clinical implications of the smear layer in endodontics: a review. Torabinejad M, Handysides R, Khademi AA, Bakland LK. Oral Surg Oral Med Oral Pathol Oral Radiol Endod. 2002;94:658–666. - PubMed
    1. Root canal irrigants. Zehnder M. J Endod. 2006;32:389–398. - PubMed
    1. Effect of apical preparation size and preparation taper on irrigant volume delivered by using negative pressure irrigation system. Brunson M, Heilborn C, Johnson DJ, Cohenca N. J Endod. 2010;36:721–724. - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources