title: Surface porosity of hand-mixed, syringe-mixed and encapsulated set endodontic sealers.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The objective of this study was to investigate the surface porosity of hand-mixed, syringe-mixed and encapsulated set endodontic sealers using image analysis.
  
  
  METHODS
  Eight different root canal sealers (AD Seal/Meta Biomed; AH Plus/Dentsply; MM Seal/Micromega; AH Plus Jet/Dentsply; EndoREZ/Ultradent; Epiphany/Pentron; GuttaFlow/Coltène; RealSeal/Sybron Endo) were prepared in accordance with the manufacturer's recommendations and dispensed into plastic rings (n = 10/group). Following set of the specimens, scanning electron photomicrographs of the sealer surfaces were taken at standard magnification. The area fraction and the minimum-maximum diameters of surface pores were calculated on the micrographs using ImageJ open-source image analysis software. Statistical comparisons were made between the sealers with respect to the area fractions and number of pores (Kruskal-Wallis test, P < .05).
  
  
  RESULTS
  The endodontic sealers differed significantly in both the percentage of area fraction and pore count (P < .001). The surface porosity of the methacrylate-based sealers Epiphany and RealSeal were significantly lower than those of resin- and silicone-based sealers. With the exception of AD Seal, hand-mixed sealers displayed significantly higher surface porosity than those of syringe-mixed ones (P < .001). The encapsulated sealer GuttaFlow exhibited the highest surface area fraction of pores.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The mixing method influences the surface porosity of set endodontic sealers.
authors.affiliation: Department of Endodontics, Faculty of Dentistry, Hacettepe University, Ankara, Turkey. uyanikmo@yahoo.com
authors.forename: M Ozgur
authors.initials: MO
authors.lastname: Uyanik
authors.forename: Emre
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Nagas
authors.forename: H Evren
authors.initials: HE
authors.lastname: Cubukcu
authors.forename: Fugen
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Dagli
authors.forename: Zafer C
authors.initials: ZC
authors.lastname: Cehreli
mesh_terms: D003738:Dental Cements / Q000737:chemistry*; D004338:Drug Combinations; D055595:Mechanical Phenomena; D008855:Microscopy, Electron, Scanning; D016062:Porosity; D019279:Resin Cements / Q000737:chemistry; D012387:Root Canal Filling Materials / Q000737:chemistry*; D013499:Surface Properties
chemical_list: D003738:Dental Cements; D004338:Drug Combinations; D019279:Resin Cements; D012387:Root Canal Filling Materials