Antibacterial Activity of 3 Endodontic Irrigations Towards Enterococcus faecalis within Root Canals in Vitro

Objective To evaluate the antibacterial activity of sodium hypochlorite,chlorhexidine,EDTA on Enterococcus faecalis within root canals. Methods Roots of 80 anterior teeth ex vivo inoculated with E. faecalis were randomly divided into four groups,which underwent different endodontic irrigation:Group 1:5.25% sodium hypochlorite,Group 2:2% chlorhexidine,Group 3: 17% EDTA,Group 4: 0.9%Nacl as negative control. Microbiological samples were collected from root canals before irrigation and after irrigation. Compute and use one-way ANOVA to contrast variance of colony forming units (CFU) among the groups. Results The numbers of E. faecalis in root canal with each group were effectively reduced. Group 1,2,3 were not statistically significant (P 0.05). But,Group 1,2,3 were statistically more effective than Group 4 (P 0.05). Conclusion 5.25% sodium hypochlorite,2% chlorhexidine and EDTA were effective for root canal irrigation. However the three endodontic irrigations can not completely clean up E. faecalis within root canal system.