Effect of Intracanal Cryotherapy on Reducing Root Surface Temperature.

Area of Science:

• Endodontics
• Cryotherapy
• Biomedical Engineering

Background:

• Cryotherapy demonstrates established therapeutic benefits in various medical applications.
• Optimizing methods for controlled temperature reduction in dental procedures is crucial for therapeutic outcomes.

Purpose of the Study:

• To validate a novel technique for reducing and sustaining external root surface temperature for a minimum of four minutes.
• To assess the efficacy of cold saline irrigation in achieving significant and prolonged root surface temperature reduction.

Main Methods:

• Twenty single-rooted teeth underwent instrumentation and were irrigated with either 5% sodium hypochlorite (control) or 2.5°C cold saline (experimental).
• Irrigant delivery utilized a microcannula with the EndoVac system, inserting to working length for 5 minutes.
• Root surface temperature was monitored in the apical 4 mm using a digital thermometer, with statistical analysis including repeated measures ANOVA and Fisher exact test.

Main Results:

• Both irrigation methods showed significant temperature reductions (P < .001), but cold saline was nearly ten times more effective than the control.
• The experimental group demonstrated significantly superior results in maintaining a -10°C temperature reduction over four minutes (P = 3.047 × 10(-10)).

Conclusions:

• Final irrigation with cold saline solution effectively reduces external root surface temperature by over 10°C and sustains this reduction for four minutes.
• This prolonged hypothermic effect holds potential for inducing localized anti-inflammatory responses within the periradicular tissues.