Letter to the Editor Letter to the Editor: Warm Vertical Compaction and Its Influence on the Properties of Root Canal Sealers To the Editor: write in regard to comment on a research article authored by Qu et al titled ‘‘Influence of Warm Vertical Compaction Technique on Physical Properties of Root Canal Sealers’’ that was published in December 2016, volume 42, issue 12 of the Journal of Endodontics. The authors found that warm vertical compaction influenced some properties (the setting time, flow, and porosity) of tested sealers. A significant reduction of setting time and flow was found in RoekoSeal (Roeko/Coltene/Whaledent Langenau, Germany) and iRoot SP (Innovative Bioceramix
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Vancouver, Canada) sealers at a high temperature. However, the Materials and Methods section indicated that the application of temperature was not limited to the time of vertical compaction application only, and the specimens were incubated in a high temperature of 140 C between 10 minutes to 48 hours according the time of the experiments. The clinical significance of this study was to choose proper sealers in the warm vertical compaction technique. However, the method used was not mimicking the clinical practice of vertical compaction. In warm vertical compaction, the duration of heating applied is no more than 4 seconds for safety considerations (1). Such a huge difference in the assumed clinical practice time and the experiment time could affect the result and its clinical implication.
In January 2015, volume 41, issue 1, Camilleri (2) investigated the effect of temperature during the warm vertical compaction technique by testing the sealers’ properties after 1 minute. The time used is more appropriate and mimics the clinical situation. I believe if the correct time of heat application was applied, different results could be detected. Afaf Yahya Al-Haddad, BDS, MDSc, PhD Department of Dental Materials and Equipment Faculty of Dentistry Mahsa University Selangor, Malaysia
References 1. Buchanan LS. Filling root canal systems with centered condensation: concepts, instruments, and techniques. Dent Today 2004;23. 102, 104, 106 passim. 2. Camilleri J. Sealers and warm gutta-percha obturation techniques. J Endod 2015;41:72–8.
Letter to the Editor
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