Introduction: The aim of this study was to compare the effect of root canal irrigation with superoxidized water and sodium hypochlorite on elimination of Enterococcus faecalis biofilm from the root canal walls.
Methods and materials: In this experimental study, a total of 32 extracted human central incisors were used. The crowns of all teeth were cut to length of 16 mm. After cleaning and shaping, then the specimens were sterilized in autoclave and then divided into four groups (n=8) as following: group 1 (positive control, root canal irrigation with normal saline), group 2 (negative control without biofilm), group 3 (root canal irrigation with sodium hypochlorite) and group 4 (root canal irrigation with superoxidized water). The bacterial suspension was inserted to root canals of teeth except for negative control group in order to form a microbial biofilm in incubator for 2 weeks. Then all the samples received root canal irrigation for 5 min based on their allocation. At the end, colony forming unit (CFU) was evaluated and biofilm formation and thickness was detected with scanning electron microscopy. The Kruskal Wallis and Dunn's tests were done for biofilm thickness and CFU, respectively with the level of significance set at 0.05.
Results: In negative control group no biofilm formation and CFU was present. The CFU counts and biofilm thickness were significantly different between the experimental groups (P=0.001) and both parameters were less in samples with hypochlorite irrigation compared to positive control (52.56±5.82 µm for biofilm thickness and 1.2×107 CFU) and samples irrigated with superoxidized water (2.92±1.76 µm for biofilm thickness and 5.4×104 CFU).
Conclusion: Based on this in vitro study reduction in biofilm thickness and CFU/mL was 100% for sodium hypochlorite and for superoxidized water was 98% and 90% for reduction in biofilm thickness and CFU/mL, respectively.
Keywords: Canal Irrigation; Enterococcus faecalis; Sodium Hypochlorite; Superoxidized Water.