Development of Efficacious and Less Toxic Endodontic Irrigants from Biosurfactants of Bacterial Origin - A Confocal Laser Scanning Microscope Study.

Aim: The study compared the penetration depth and area of Bacillus subtilis and Pseudomonas aeruginosa biosurfactants inside the dentinal tubules against sodium hypochlorite at three levels (coronal, middle, and apical) under a confocal laser scanning microscope.

Materials and methodology: Three experimental groups and one control were created using freshly extracted thirty-five maxillary central incisors; Group 1: B. subtilis biosurfactant; Group 2: P. aeruginosa biosurfactants; Group 3: sodium hypochlorite; and Group 4: distilled water. The experimental data were statistically analyzed by two-way analysis of variance, duly coupled with Tukey's post hoc test to draw concrete conclusions between paired comparisons, and P < 0.05 was considered statistically significant.

Results: P. aeruginosa and B. subtilis biosurfactant showed the maximum mean penetration depth and area at all the level as compared to sodium hypochlorite.

Conclusion: Biosurfactants showed better results than sodium hypochlorite in reaching to higher penetration depth and area at all the three levels.