From Volume 43, Issue 2, March 2016 | Pages 114-129
Once cleaning and shaping is complete the clinician must obturate the canal. There are many different materials and techniques available each with their own discrete advantages and disadvantages. Whichever technique is used, the goal is to seal the entire prepared length of the root canal. This paper describes how best this may be achieved.
The purpose of obturation is to seal the cleaned, shaped and disinfected root canal system and to prevent re-infection. It is now well understood that teeth that are poorly obturated are often poorly prepared.1 When assessing obturated roots, it has been shown that obturation without voids and to within 2.0 mm of the apex has a significant positive influence on the outcome of treatment.2 It has been emphasized that good obturation should create a good seal; this includes apical and coronal seal as well as lateral seal. There have been several materials and techniques developed to achieve this; however, all the materials and techniques are believed to show evidence of leakage to some degree.3
Many materials and techniques are available to obturate the root canal system. Grossman et al have described the properties of an ideal obturation material (Table 1),4 however, no single material can currently satisfy all these requirements. As such, practitioners are dependent upon a combination of sealer and some type of core material to ensure optimal obturation.
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