in vitro evaluation of apical sealing ability of herofill® obturator versus cold lateral condensation in curved root canals

objectives: this study aimed to assess and compare the apical sealing ability of herofill® soft-core system and lateral condensation technique in fine curved canals using the fluid filtration method. materials and methods: forty human mesiobuccal root canals of mandibular first molars with 25° to 40° curvatures were instrumented to an apical size 30/0.04. roots were randomly assigned to two experimental groups of 15, designated as groups a and b. two control groups, each containing five teeth, served as positive and negative controls. group a was obturated using lateral condensation technique and group b with the herofill® soft-core system. the groups were tested for microleakage using an in vitro fluid filtration apparatus with 0.5 atm pressure at zero, two, four, six, eight and 10 minutes. independent t-test was used to analyze the microleakage data. results: the mean and standard deviation (sd) values for fluid microleakage in the lateral condensation group were 0.58±0.49 µl/min, 0.68±0.35 µl/min, 0.74±0.22 µl/min, 0.71±0.29 µl/min and 0.60± 0.29 µl/min at two, four, six, eight and 10 minutes, respectively. the mean and sd values for fluid microleakage in the herofill® group were 0.53±0.42 µl/min, 0.67±0.34 µl/min, 0.69±0.26 µl/min, 0.73±0.33 µl/min and 0.63±0.26 µl/min at two, four, six, eight and 10 minutes, respectively. the difference between the lateral condensation and herofill® groups was not statistically significant at two (p=0.776), four (p=0.909), six (p=0.562), eight (p=0.861) or 10 (p=0.765) minutes. conclusion: the herofill® system and cold lateral condensation technique were equally effective for apical sealing of curved canals.