A comparison of the antimicrobial efficacy of NaOCl/Biopure MTAD versus NaOCl/EDTA against Enterococcus faecalis

The purpose of this investigation was to compare the antimicrobial efficacy of irrigating with 1.3% NaOCl/Biopure MTAD versus irrigation with 5.25% NaOCl/15% EDTA in the apical 5 mm of roots infected with Enterococcus faecalis. Bilaterally matched human teeth were sterilized and inoculated with E. faecalis. After chemomechanical root canal preparation, the root-ends were resected and pulverized in liquid nitrogen to expose E. faecalis in dentinal tubules or other recesses away from the main root canal system. The number of colony forming units (CFU) of E. faecalis per mg was determined from the pulverized root-ends. No significant differences were seen (t = 0.70, p = 0.495) between the number of colony forming units of E. faecalis for teeth irrigated with 5.25% NaOCl/15% EDTA (mean 131 +/- 291 CFU/mg) versus those teeth irrigated with 1.3% NaOCl/Biopure MTAD (mean 187 +/- 237 CFU/mg). This study demonstrated that there is no difference in antimicrobial efficacy for irrigation with 5.25% NaOCl/15% EDTA versus irrigation with 1.3% NaOCl/Biopure MTAD in the apical 5 mm of roots infected with E. faecalis.