1Department of Conservative Dentistry and Endodontics, Yogita Dental College, Khede, Ratnagiri, Maharastra, India.
2Department of Conservative Dentistry and Endodontics, college of Dental sciences , Davangere, Karnataka. India.
Online published on 22 June, 2012.
To evaluate the efficacy of chemo-mechanical method (carisolv) of caries removal with that of hand cutting and rotary cutting instruments with the help of knoop hardness measurements of the cavity floor.
The 45 carious molars were subjected to caries detector (Kavo DIAGNOdent) to assess the extent of the lesion before and after the study. The selected samples was divided into 4 groups of 15 teeth each. The first 3 groups were taken as study group Group I (Carisolv), Group II (Hand excavation), Group III (Carbide bur), and Group IV (Control). The treated cavities were cross-sectioned perpendicularly along the long axis of the tooth through the middle of the treated cavity and then subjected to knoop hardness test.
The knoop hardness of the remaining dentin thickness was least for group II (hand excavation) and highest excavation for control group IV (normal dentin), group I (carisolv) and group III (carbide bur) showed KHN values that was not statistically significant when compared to group IV. On comparing group I with group III the KHN of remaining dentin thickness of group III was more than group I but this was not statistically significant.
It was thus concluded that group II (hand excavation) showed the least knoop hardness value and group I (carisolv) and group III (bur) showed similar to that of normal dentin although values of group III was more than group I but it was not statistically significant.
Carisolv, DIAGNOdent, knoop hardness
