Effects of vacuuming on dye penetration patterns in root canals and glass tubes

This study compared the dye leakage pattern of prepared root canals with that of glass tubes, with and without vacuuming. The apical 12 mm of 40 calcified root canals were prepared to tubes with a diameter of 0.5 mm. The coronal end of these canals and 40 glass tubes with similar diameters (12 mm x 0.5 mm) were closed with 2 mm of Cavit. Twenty samples from each group were left empty, and the rest (20) were filled with gutta-percha without sealer. Half of the samples of filled (10) and unfilled (10) specimens were then placed horizontally in 2% methylene blue dye. The other half (10) of the samples from each group were placed in a vacuum (25 mm Hg) and submerged in the dye. Leakage was then measured in millimeters and statistically analyzed using analysis of variance. The 20 empty glass tubes with or without vacuum leaked 17% or less of their lengths. The 20 glass tubes filled with gutta-percha averaged 70.5% leakage. Of those, the 10 glass tubes that were vacuumed had 100% leakage. Empty root canals exhibited mean leakage of 74% without vacuum and 91% of their length with vacuum. Canals filled with gutta-percha leaked a mean of 95.5% of their entire lengths without vacuum and 100% with vacuum (no significant difference). The results showed that filled and unfilled, prepared root canals leaked significantly more than their glass tube counterparts (p < 0.001), and vacuuming may not be necessary for dye leakage studies in filled root canals.