push-out bond strength of dorifill, epiphany and mta-fillapex sealers to root canal dentin with and without smear layer

introduction: the aim of the present experimental study was to evaluate the push-out bond strength of dorifill, epiphany and mta-fillapex sealers to root canal dentin in presence and absence of smear layer (sl). methods and materials: sixty human single-rooted teeth were selected and divided into six groups ( n= 10). the canal irrigation protocol in groups 1, 3 and 5 consisted of 2.5% naocl during instrumentation and normal saline at the end of preparation plus a 5-min irrigation with 17% ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (edta). in the remaining groups, normal saline was used for canal irrigation. the root canals were filled with epiphany/resilon (groups 1 and 2), dorifill/gutta-percha (groups 3 and 4) and mta-fillapex/gutta-percha (groups 5 and 6). after two weeks of storage in 95% relative humidity at 37 º c, 2 mm-thick dentin disks were prepared from coronal third of each root. the push-out bond strength test was carried out using a universal testing machine. data were analyzed with the two-way anova and post hoc tukey’s tests. statistical significance was defined at 0.05. results: the highest (3.06±0.38 mpa) and lowest (1.16±0.32 mpa) push-out bond strength values were recorded in epiphany/resilon-naocl/edta and dorifill/gutta-percha/normal saline groups, respectively. there were significant differences in the bond strength of sealers ( p <0.05). in addition, elimination of the sl significantly increased the bond strength of all sealers ( p <0.05). conclusion: the epiphany/resilon group exhibited the highest push-out bond strength in the presence and absence of the sl. elimination of the sl resulted in a significant increase in the bond strength of all the sealers to dentin.