Introduction:Intraoral local anesthesia is essential for delivering dental care. Needless devices have been developed to provide anesthesia without injections. Little controlled research is available on its use in dental restorative procedures in adult patients. The aims of this study were to compare adult patients acceptability and preference for needleless jet injection with classical local infiltration as well as to evaluate the efficacy of the needleless anesthesia.Materials and Methods:Twenty non fearful adults with no previous experience of dental anesthesia were studied using split-mouth design. The first procedure was performed with classical needle infiltration anesthesia. The same amount of anesthetic solution was administered using MADA jet needleless device in a second session one week later, during which a second dental restorative procedure was performed. Patients acceptance was assessed using Universal pain assessment tool while effectiveness was recorded using soft tissue anesthesia and pulpal anesthesia. Patients reported their preference for the anesthetic method at the third visit. The data was evaluated using chi square test and student's t-test.Results:Pressure anesthesia was more accepted and preferred by 70% of the patients than traditional needle anesthesia (20%). Both needle and pressure anesthesia was equally effective for carrying out the dental procedures.Conclusion:Patients experienced significantly less pain and fear (p<0.01) during anesthetic procedure with pressure anesthesia. However, for more invasive procedures needle anesthesia will be more effective.

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Aim:The aim of this study is to evaluate the effect of alcohol and nonalcohol containing mouth rinses on the color stability of a nanofilled resin composite restorative material.Materials and Methods:A total of 120 samples of a nanofilled resin composite material (Tetric N-Ceram, Ivoclar Vivadent AG, FL-9494 Schaan/Liechtenstein) were prepared and immersed in distilled water for 24 h. Baseline color values were recorded using Color Spectrophotometer 3600d (Konica Minolta, Japan). Samples were then randomly distributed into six groups: Group I - distilled water (control group), Group II - Listerine, Group III - Eludril, Group IV - Phosflur, Group V - Amflor, and Group VI - Rexidin. The postimmersion color values of the samples were then recorded, respectively.Results:Significant reduction in the mean color value (before and after immersion) was observed in nonalcohol containing mouth rinses (P < 0.001).Conclusion:All mouthrinses tested in the present in-vitro study caused a color shift in the nanofilled resin composite restorative material, but the color shift was dependent on the material and the mouthrinse used. Group VI (Rexidin) showed maximum color change.

Background:A novel technique of sterilization of endodontic files is introduced in this article.Aims:Newly introduced sterilization unit, named “SteriFast” is compared with autoclave and glass bead sterilizer using biological indicator.Materials and Methods:Spore strips of Bacillus pumilus were cultured in nutrient broth. This cultured media was used to contaminate the experimental samples of endodontic files. These contaminated files were sterilized using three different techniques. The sterilized files were transferred into nutrient medium under aseptic condition. The results were observed after 24 h, 48 h, and 7 days.Results:The results showed that autoclave and new sterilization device (SteriFast) showed complete sterilization. The files sterilized using glass bead sterilizer showed bacterial growth (80%).Conclusions:Thus, it proves that autoclave and SteriFast are ideal techniques of sterilization of endodontic files. Glass bead sterilizer does not completely sterilize the files. The article also compares SteriFast and autoclave in other aspects such as its design, basic principle, advantages, and disadvantages. The article also describes features and design of SteriFast, used for all kind of small dental instruments.

Aims:This study evaluated effect of infection control barriers on light intensity (LI) of light-curing unit (LCU) and microhardness of composite.Materials and Methods:Four different disposable barriers (n = 30) were tested against the control. LI for each barrier was measured with Lux meter. One hundred and fifty Teflon molds were equally divided into five groups of thirty each. Composite was filled in bulk in these molds and cured without and with barrier. Microhardness was evaluated on top and bottom surface of composite specimen with microhardness testing machine and hardness ratio (HR) was derived.Statistical Analysis Used:One-way analysis of variance, Tukey's honestly significant difference test, and paired t-test using SPSS version 18 software.Results:All barriers had significantly reduced the baseline LI of LCU (P < 0.0001), but only Cure Elastic Steri-Shield and latex cut glove pieces (LCGP) significantly reduced the microhardness of the composite (P < 0.05). However, HR determined inadequate curing only with LCGP.Conclusions:Although entire tested barrier significantly reduced the LI; none, except LCGP markedly affected the degree of cure of the composite.

ObjectivesThis study evaluated the efficacy of Endosolv-R and Xylene in softening epoxy resin based sealer after 1 to 2 min exposure.Materials and MethodsSixty Teflon molds (6 mm × 1.5 mm in inner diameter and depth) were equally divided into 3 groups of 20 each. AH 26 (Dentsply/De Trey), AH Plus (Dentsply/De Trey), Adseal (Meta-Biomed) were manipulated and placed in the molds allotted to each group and allowed to set at 37℃ in 100% humidity for 2 wk. Each group was further divided into 2 subgroups according to the solvents used, i.e. Xylene (Lobachemie) and Endosolv-R (Septodont). Specimens in each subgroup were exposed to respective solvents for 1 and 2 min and the corresponding Vicker's microhardness (HV) was assessed. Data was analysed by Mauchly's test and two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) with repeated measures, and one-way ANOVA.ResultsInitial hardness was significantly different among the three sealers with AH Plus having the greatest and Adseal having the least. After 2 min, Xylene softened AH Plus and Adseal sealer to 11% and 25% of their initial microhardness, respectively (p < 0.001), whereas AH 26 was least affected, maintaining 89.4% of its initial microhardness. After 2 min, Endosolv-R softened AH 26, AH Plus and Adseal to 12.7, 5.6 and 8.1% of their initial microhardness, respectively (p < 0.001).ConclusionsEndosolv-R was a significantly more effective short term softener for all the tested sealers after 2 min whereas Xylene was an effective short term softener against AH plus and Adseal but less effective against AH 26.

Introduction:The objective of this study was to evaluate dentinal defects formed by new rotary system — Protaper next™ (PTN).Materials and Methods:Sixty single-rooted premolars were selected. All specimens were decoronated and divided into four groups, each group having 15 specimens. Group I specimens were prepared by Hand K-files (Mani), Group II with ProTaper Universal (PT; Dentsply Maillefer), Group III with Hero Shaper (HS; Micro-Mega, Besancon, France), and Group IV with PTN (Dentsply Maillefer). Roots of each specimen were sectioned at 3, 6, and 9mm from the apex and were then viewed under a stereomicroscope to evaluate presence or absence of dentinal defects.Results:In roots prepared with hand files (HFs) showed lowest percentage of dentinal defects (6.7%); whereas in roots prepared with PT, HS, and PTN it was 40, 66.7, and 26.7%, respectively. There was significant difference between the HS group and the PTN group (P < 0.05).Conclusion:All rotary files induced defects in root dentin, whereas the hand instruments induced minimal defects.

The canal preparation with V-Taper 2H showed lesser transportation and better centering ability than PN and Hyflex CM.