Evaluation of the sealing ability of pulp capping agents against leakage on direct pulp capping with a computerized fluid filtration meter

Abstract

Objective: The aim of this study was to assess the sealing abilities of two calcium hydroxide (Ca[OH] 2) pastes and two mineral trioxide aggregates (MTA) against leakage on direct pulp capping with a computerized fluid filtration (CFF) method. Materials and Methods: The 60 recently extracted sound human molar teeth were sectioned at the level of the highest pulp horn to obtain dentin discs of 0.5 ± 0.2 mm. The dentin discs were numbered and permeability measurements were done before and after the operation for the same sample. For simulating direct pulp capping, dentin discs were perforated with a standard diamond bur and restorated with four different capping materials: Dycal, Calcimol light-curing (LC), ProRoot MTA and DiaRoot BioAggregate. Fluid movement measurements were tested with a CFF method and a mean value was calculated for each specimen. Results: Calcimol LC and Dycal showed significantly higher fluid conductance values compared to other pulp capping materials (P < 0.05). There were no significant differences between ProRoot MTA and DiaRoot BioAggregate (P > 0.05). Conclusion: Within the limitations of this study, it can be concluded that using the MTA materials as a pulp-capping agent would be more efficient than Ca (OH) 2 materials with regard to pulpal microleakage.