Sealing ability of two intermediate restorative materials in bleached teeth

This study compared the radicular penetration of bleaching agents in endodontically treated teeth containing an IRM base, a Cavit base, and no base. Forty-five extracted human maxillary central incisors treated with conventional endodontic therapy with laterally condensed gutta percha and sealer were randomly divided into three groups: (1) Cavit base, (2) IRM base and (3) no base. In groups 1 and 2, a 3.5 mm thickness of base material was placed at the time of obturation. After storage in saline for 1 week, the teeth were bleached with a mixture of 35% hydrogen peroxide and sodium perborate, combined with a 10% methylene blue dye solution, using a combination thermocatalytic and non-thermocatalytic bleaching technique. The apical distance of dye penetration was measured. The control group demonstrated dye penetration to the apex, indicating that a base is required to prevent leakage of bleaching agents when this combination of bleaching techniques is used. The mean distance of leakage was 3.43 mm (+/- 1.14) for the Cavit group and 5.94 mm (+/- 1.72) for the IRM group. Analysis with a t-test revealed that Cavit was a more effective barrier to leakage than IRM (T = 4.20, P less than 0.001).