COMPARATIVE EVALUATION OF ANTIMICROBIAL EFFICACY OF TRIPLE ANTIBIOTIC PASTE AND MODIFIED DOUBLE ANTIBIOTIC PASTE USING DIFFERENT VEHICLES AGAINST CANDIDA ALBICANS

Endodontic infections are inherently polymicrobial in nature. These microorganisms flourish in harmonious consortium. No single microorganism can be held responsible for the failure of endodontic treatment or persistent apical periodontitis.The vivid flora involved in such incidences includes bacteria as well as fungi. Amongst the fungi Candida sp., Aspergillus sp ,Penicillium sp. are the common ones to be isolated. Several studies have reported higher frequency of candida albicans in cultures from root canals of teeth of failed endodontic treatment. Though chemomechanical preparation of root canal eliminates most of the microbes, complete sterility of root canals is difficult to achieve. Intracanal medicaments come into play in such situations. The triple antibiotic paste is most widely used intracanal medicament in present-day. This study evaluated the antimicrobial activity of triple antibiotic and modified double antibiotic paste with different vehicles against C.albicans. The antimicrobial efficacy was evaluated by using agar well diffusion method. Medicaments were placed in wells on agar plates previously inoculated with C.albicans. All plates were incubated and the diameter of bacterial inhibition zones on agar plate was measured in millimeters at 24, 48 and 72 hours at 37?C and 100% humidity. Result showed that Triple antibiotic paste was better than double antibiotic paste. TAP + CHX =TAP + chitosan > DAP +CHX > DAP + chitosan. Triple antibiotic paste (TAP) with chlorhexidine and TAP with chitosan had equal effectiveness, and Modified Double antibiotic paste (DAP) with chlorhexidine had better efficacy than DAP with chitosan.