Title

Comparative assessment of penetration depth for various endodontic irrigants in root dentin using confocal laser scanning microscopy

Authors

Ankita Mehrotra¹, Jyoti Jain^2,*, Ramesh Chandra¹, Nitika Arora², Tarun Pratap Singh¹ & Akanksha Srivastava¹

Affiliation

¹Department of Conservative Dentistry and Endodontics, Career Post Graduate Institute of Dental Sciences and Hospital, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India; ²Department of Conservative Dentistry and Endodontics, King George's Medical University, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India; *Corresponding author

Email

Ankita Mehrotra - E-mail: ankitabonzai@gmail.com
Jyoti Jain - E-mail: drjyoti82@gmail.com
Ramesh Chandra - E-mail: dr.rameshchandra01@gmail.com
Nitika Arora - E-mail: aroradrnitika@gmail.com
Tarun Pratap Singh - E-mail: tarunyad@gmail.com
Akanksha Srivastava - E-mail: akankshasri1911@gmail.com

Article Type

Research Article

Date

Received August 1, 2026; Revised August 31, 2026; Accepted August 31, 2026, Published August 31, 2026

Abstract

Effective root canal disinfection requires irrigant penetration into dentinal tubules, yet comparative tubule penetration of novel organic acids versus conventional solutions remains insufficiently characterized. Therefore, it is of interest to evaluate the 20 single rooted mandibular premolars prepared to size 35 K-file, randomly allocated into four groups: saline, 0.7% fumaric acid, 7% maleic acid and 18% etidronic acid, all with Rhodamine B dye. Coronal (9 mm), middle (6 mm) and apical (3 mm) sections were analyzed via confocal laser scanning microscopy at 10x magnification; with penetration depth quantified using one-way ANOVA. Fumaric acid (Group II) showed maximal penetration across all root thirds compared to maleic acid, etidronic acid and saline controls. Thus, data shows 0.7% fumaric acid as superior dentinal tubule penetrant, positioning it as promising irrigant for enhanced root canal disinfection efficacy.

Keywords

Confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM); irrigants; fumaric acid; dentinal tubules; penetration depth

Citation

Mehrotra et al. Bioinformation 22(8): 4933-4937 (2026)

Edited by

Vini Mehta

ISSN

0973-2063

Publisher

Biomedical Informatics

License

This is an Open Access article which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. This is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License.