the comparison of effects of 3 methods of post space preparation on the apical seal invitro

purpose: the aim of this study was to compare the effects of a) a flame heated endo plugger, b) gatesglidden drills and c) gpx drills on the apical seal for the purpose of post space preparation. materials & methods: the crowns of sixty six extracted maxillary central teeth were removed from cej by a diamond disc and the root canals were prepared and obturated with guttapercha and sealer (ah26) using lateral condensation technique. six teeth were used as positve and negative control groups and the other sixty teeth were divided into 3 groups, each group containing 20 teeth. the post space in these 3 groups was made by either a/a hot plugger, b/# 3or# 4 gates glidden drills and c/# 40 or # 50 gpx drills and apical dye leakage in each group was measured by stereomicroscope and the anova test was used to compare the mean amount of dye leakage between groups. results: between these 3 groups, the minimal mean dye leakage was related to the hot plugger group and the maximum mean leakage was observed in gates glidden drill group. there was significant statistical difference between the groups (p=0.005). conclusion: the gpx drills for the purpose of post space preparation affect apical seal less than gates glidden drills.j dent sch 2005 22(special issue): 60-64