Análise, in vitro, da redução de endotoxinas em canais radiculares contaminados, após o emprego de sistemas de gás ozônio e eletrofulguração

Abstract

The presence of bacterial endotoxin (LPS) in the root canal system is related to the maintenance and evolution of the pulp and periapical diseases. So far, there is none technical or material that is completely effective in eliminating the LPS. Therefore, in order to enhance the disinfection process, and thereby, to increase the success rate of endodontic treatment, it has been sought alternatives to clinical protocols held nowa-days. The use of auxiliary equipments with principles of action based on electrofulguration and in the potential application of ozone gas appears as an alterna-tives. Thus, the first article of this thesis initially sought to verify the feasibility for the use of bovine teeth instead of human teeth, in in vitro experiments with contamination by LPS, because there are no studies in the literature using this methodology. For this, twenty bovine (B) central incisors and twenty single-rooted human (H) premolars had removed their dental crowns and standardized their root length to 16 mm. The root ca-nals were prepared until size 60 K-type instrument and subjected to sterilization by gamma irradiation with 60 cobalt. According to the two types of dental species, the teeth were randomly divided into two subgroups, positive (P) and negative (N). The root canals of the positive groups (HP and BP) were inoculated with Escherichia coli LPS (O55:B5). The root canals of negative groups (HN and BN) were exposed only to a py-rogenic water. After the teeth incubation in a 37ºC atmospheric humidity during 24 hours, the samples of the solutions from the main root canals were collected with a py-rogenic absorbent paper points. The quantification of the levels of LPS was made by Limulus Amebosytes Lysate (LAL) and data were subjected to oneway ANOVA, fol-lowed by Tukey post hoc, with a 5% significance level. The results showed significant differences (P<0,001) between the two experimental models. The use of bovine teeth showed not to be the best option for LPS contamination studies. Following this result, a second article of the Thesis was performed in order to verify the effect of ozone gas (OZY® system) and high frequency electric pulses (Endox® System) in human root canals previously contaminated by LPS. Fifty single-rooted premolars received the same protocol for root canals preparation, as reported in the first article. Once ready, the specimens were divided into five groups (n=10), according to the disinfection protocol established: OZY® System, one 120-second-pulse (OZY 1p); OZY® System, four 24-second-pulses (OZY 4p); Endox® System (ENDOX). Contaminated and non-contaminated canals, exposed only to apyrogenic water, were used as positive (C+) and negative (C-) controls, respectively. The Escherichia coli LPS (O55:B5) was inoculated into the root canals, except in the C- group teeth. After performing the disinfection pro-tocols, fluid samples were collected from the canals using apyrogenic paper tips. The method for quantification of LPS levels and statistical analysis were the same as de-scribed in the first article. The results showed that the disinfection protocols were una-ble to reduce significantly the LPS levels. The use of ozone gas and high frequency electric pulses were not effective in the elimination of LPS in root canals.