penetration depth of sodium hypochlorite in dentinal tubules after conventional irrigation, passive ultrasonic agitation and nd:yag laser activated irrigation

introduction: the penetration depth of irrigating solutions in dentinal tubules is limited; consequently, bacteria can remain inside dentinal tubules after the cleaning and shaping of the root canal system. therefore, new irrigation systems are required to increase the penetration depth of irrigating solutions in dentinal tubules. methods: a comparative study regarding the penetration depth of sodium hypochlorite (naocl) solution in dentinal tubules using four methods, (1) conventional irrigation (ci), (2) smear layer removal plus conventional irrigation (gold standard), (3) passive ultrasonic agitation (pua) and (4) nd:yag laser activated irrigation (lai), took place on 144 extracted mandibular teeth with a single root canal. after decoronation with a diamond disc and working length determination, the apical foramen was sealed with wax. the canals were prepared up to #35 mtwo rotary file and 5.25% naocl was used for irrigation during preparation. to study the penetration depth of naocl, smear layer was eliminated in all samples. dentinal tubules were stained with crystal violet and after longitudinal sectioning of teeth, the two halves were reassembled and root canal preparation was performed up to #40 mtwo rotary file. then the samples were distributed into four experimental groups. depth of the bleached zone was evaluated by stereomicroscope (20x). data were analyzed by kruskal-wallis test. results: the highest and lowest average for naocl penetration depth in all three coronal, middle and apical sections belonged to ci + smear layer removal and ci. a statistically significant difference was seen when comparing the penetration depth of ci + smear layer removal group to ci and pua groups in coronal and middle third, in which the average naocl penetration depth of the gold standard group was higher ( p < 0.05). a statistically significant difference was seen between ci + smear layer removal group and the other three groups including ci, pua and lai in apical third, in which the average naocl penetration depth in the gold standard group was higher ( p < 0.001). conclusion: the standard protocol for smear layer removal led to more effective smear layer elimination and deeper penetration depth of irrigation solutions. pua and lai groups exhibited less smear layer elimination and penetration depth of irrigation solutions. therefore, ci+smear layer removal should still be considered as the gold standard.