1Undergraduate Student, Saveetha Dental College, Saveetha Institute of Medical and Technical Sciences, Saveetha University, Chennai, Tamil Nadu India
2Reader Saveetha Dental College, Saveetha Institute of Medical and Technical Sciences, Saveetha University, Chennai, Tamil Nadu India
*Corresponding Author, Dr. Subash Sharma, Reader, Department of Conservative dentistry and Endodontics, Saveetha Institute of Medical and Technical Sciences, Saveetha University, 162, Poonamallee High Road, Chennai, 600077, Tamil Nadu, India, Email: drsubashsharma@gmail.com, Telephone number: 9884533118
Online published on 27 March, 2020.
To compare the desmearing effect of 7% maleic acid with 17% EDTA on intra-radicular smear layer removal using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM).
Fifteen maxillary incisors were collected and decoronated. Each tooth was randomly split into 3 groups, each assigned to saline, 17% EDTA and 7% Maleic acid respectively and irrigated. Each tooth was split into halves and subjected to scanning electron microscopy for evaluation of smear layer removal.
Average grading for saline was 5.16 and that of EDTA was 2.32 and Maleic acid was 3.16. Maleic acid was significantly better than saline. But maleic acid was significantly not as effective as EDTA on the smear layer removal.
This study proves that Maleic acid though better than saline fell short in comparison to EDTA in terms of smear layer removal. This difference in desmearing effect was significant.
Maleic acid, root canal irrigant, surface roughness, scanning electron microscopy
