Comparative evaluation of different access cavity designs on intracoronal bleaching of endodontically treated teeth using two different agents – An in vitro study

Aim: The present in vitro study was designed to determine the effect of different access cavity designs on intracoronal bleaching of endodontically treated teeth with two different agents. Materials and Methods: Fifty selected permanent maxillary central incisors were stained. Traditional and contracted access cavity designs and two types of bleaching agents, i.e., 35% carbamide peroxide and 35 percent hydrogen peroxide were used for the study. Color measurements were performed with a spectrophotometer: before staining (T1), after staining (T2), at 7 and 14 days (T3 and T4) post bleaching. The values were calculated and subjected to the statistical analysis. Results: The results of our study showed that teeth in which traditional access cavity (TAC) was prepared had statistically significant better bleaching results with both 35% carbamide peroxide and 35% hydrogen peroxide than contracted access cavity design. Carbamide peroxide showed better results than hydrogen peroxide irrespective of the access cavity design, but difference was statistically nonsignificant. Conclusion: The present study concluded that TAC design showed better results than contracted access with both carbamide peroxide and hydrogen peroxide. Whereas, when bleaching agents were compared 35% carbamide peroxide is better than 35% hydrogen peroxide irrespective of access cavity design used.