An Antimicrobial Activity Assessment of Three Endodontic Sealers on Enterococcus faecalis, Candida albicans, and Staphylococcus aureus by a Direct Contact Test: An In Vitro Study

ABSTRACT

Introduction: For a successful endodontic treatment, antimicrobial property of endodontic filing is mandatory. Hence, the aimof this in vitro study was to assess the antibacterial efficacy of three endodontic sealers on Enterococcus faecalis, Candidaalbicans, and Staphylococcus aureus by direct contact test (DCT).Materials and Methods: The antimicrobial efficacy of three different sealers, AH Plus, mineral trioxide aggregate (MTA)Fillapex, and Endosequence BC was tested against E. faecalis ATCC 29212, C. albicans ATCC 10231 and S. aureus ATCC25923 by DCT. Freshly mixed sealers were placed in flat bottom test tubes incubated at 37°C. Thereafter, 10 μL of suspensionwas drawn and spread over cultural plates to determine the colony count using a digital colony counter. Readings were takenat 1 h (fresh specimen), then at 24 h (after setting). The results were tabulated and statistical analysis was done using oneway ANOVA and Tukey HSD test.Results: DCT showed a significant decrease in microbial count in AH Plus, MTA Fillapex, and Endoseq BC at both the timeintervals. Group 3 (Endosequence BC) showed minimum microbial count followed by Group 2 (MTA Fillapex) and maximumfor Group 1 (AH Plus) for both the time intervals (1 h and 24 h).Conclusion: Endosequence BC showed maximum antimicrobial efficacy against all the tested microorganisms for both thetime intervals, followed by MTA Fillapex and AH Plus.