Assessment of debris extrusion on using step-wise irrigant activation versus conventional activation in different access designs: An ex-vivo study

Introduction: A successful endodontic therapy mainly depends on the effective chemomechanical debridement. The present study assessed the effect of different activation modes on debris extrusion in different access cavity designs. Materials and Methods: Freshly extracted 168 maxillary premolars were collected. They were allocated into two groups (n = 84) (Group I: Traditional Endodontic Access (TEA) and Group II: Contracted Endodontic Access (CEA)). These groups were further subgrouped (n = 28) based on the activation protocol used (Subgroup A, D: Manual irrigation with no activation, Subgroup B, E: Conventional activation (CA), and Subgroup C, F: Step-wise irrigant activation). Each tooth specimen was inserted into Eppendorf for debris collection. The canals were instrumented using HyFlex CM rotary files to 0.04 taper. The irrigation was specific to the experimental subgroups, which was done by a single operator. Following the experimental irrigation, the collected debris was weighted using an analytical balance. The collected data were statistically analyzed. Results: Statistical significant debris extrusion was seen with TEA (P < 0.05). Among the subgroups, step-wise irrigant activation technique showed significant (P < 0.05) debris extrusion. Conclusion: CEA showed less debris extrusion when the CA technique was used for irrigation.