Aim: Sodium hypochlorite, though considered an ideal root canal irrigant, cannot be used at required concentrations in children, due to its undesirable effects. Hence, it is imperative to search for an ideal root canal irrigant to avoid these undesirable effects which we hope to achieve with this study. The antimicrobial efficacy of aqueous ozone, green tea, and normal saline as irrigants in pulpectomy procedures of the primary teeth has been compared.
Materials and methods: Sixty patients between 4 and 8 years of age with a single-rooted deciduous tooth indicated for pulpectomy were included. The infected teeth were randomly allocated to one of the three treatment groups based on the irrigating agents used, namely normal saline, green tea extract, or ozonated water. Specimens for anaerobic culture were collected three times from the teeth: before irrigation, after initial irrigation, and on the 3rd day after final irrigation.
Results and conclusion: Mean colony forming unit (CFU) count after both initial and final irrigation with ozonated water was significantly lower when compared with green tea and normal saline. Further, it was observed that the mean CFU count with green tea was significantly lower than the counts obtained with normal saline on the 3rd day after final irrigation. Hence, both ozonated water and green tea could be considered a good alternative to conventional root canal irrigants in the primary teeth. Larger sample sizes with a larger variety of irrigants are recommended.
Keywords: Anaerobic bacteria; deciduous teeth; green tea; ozone; primary teeth; root canal irrigants.