Abstract
Objective(s): This study evaluated the antibacterial effectiveness of newly introduced intracanal medicament by comparing its antibacterial performance against Enterococcus (E.) faecalis biofilm at different dentinal depths with that of commonly used intracanal medicaments in an ex vivo model. Materials and Methods: Thirty-eight single-root human extracted teeth were infected with E. faecalis following chemo-mechanical preparation. After 14 days of incubation, the root canals were disinfected using five different medicaments (n=6): triple antibiotic paste (TAP), double antibiotic paste (DAP), 2% Chlorhexidine digluconate (CHX) gel, calcium hydroxide [Ca(OH)2] +CHX 2% and mineral trioxide aggregate (MTA) + CHX 2% and a control group. The medicaments were removed after 7 days, and dentin shavings were collected from root canals in three depths. The number of colony-forming units (CFU)/ml was counted for each sample. Results: All medicaments showed antibacterial properties against E. faecalis biofilm. Among the tested medicaments, TAP demonstrated the highest efficacy in eradicating bacterial biofilm across all three depths of the dentinal tubules, followed by DAP, with no statistically significant difference between them. In contrast, the MTA/CHX mixture exhibited the lowest antibacterial activity and did not differ significantly from the control group (p>0.05). Conclusion: Application of antibiotics as intracanal medicament can decrease the number of E. faecalis biofilms. The mixture of MTA and CHX has a low antibacterial effect in the root canal system.