Comparative study of the sealing ability of a polydimethylsiloxane-based root canal sealer

The purpose of this study was to compare the sealing ability of three root canal sealers, RSA (polydimethylsiloxane sealer), Endion (glass-ionomer sealer) and Topseal (epoxy resin sealer), with and without smear layer removal. Ninety extracted human teeth were selected and assigned to 6 groups (n=15), according to the following protocols: in 3 groups, the smear layer was left intact and the root canals were obturated with gutta-percha points and RSA, Endion and Topseal, respectively; in the other 3 groups, the smear layer was removed and the root canals were obturated in the same way as described above. Microleakage was measured at 7 days, 1 month and 2 months, using the fluid transport model. The results were expressed in microL/24 h. Data were analyzed statistically by Kruskall-Wallis and Mann-Whitney non-parametric tests. The results showed that the Topseal group without smear layer leaked significantly less (p<0.05) than the RSA group without smear layer, at all experimental periods. No statistically significant differences (p>0.05) were found among the other groups, at the established evaluation intervals. The findings of this study showed that the polydimethylsiloxane sealer (RSA) did not yield better sealing ability than the other sealers, either in the presence or in the absence of smear layer. Topseal had the least microleakage from the root canal sealers evaluated.