Efficacy of Garlic Extract as a Surfactant along with the Root Canal Sealer - An Invitro Study

Herbal medicines have become more popular due to their high antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory and biocompatible properties. When compared to the commercial root canal medicaments, they are biocompatible and less cytotoxic. The most important factors of root canal sealers are its ability to penetrate into the dentinal tubules thereby forming a physical barrier, thus adding a herbal surfactant improves the penetration. Hence this study was done to evaluate the effect of garlic extract as a surfactant along with the root canal sealer. METHODOLOGY: Fresh natural garlic bulbs were obtained blended and pressed with gauze and the filtrate was centrifuged and filtered using disposable syringe filter to obtained raw garlic extract. GROUP I ? AH PLUS sealer, GROUP II- AH PLUS sealer + Garlic Extract. Flow test was performed for both the groups, 0.5ml of sealer was placed in the glass slab with a load of 100g on top. The diameter of the compressed disc sealer were measured using graduated scale and contact angle measurement test was done using contact angelometer. The angle between the sealer surface and the liquid was measured. For antimicrobial activity agar diffusion test and modified contact test was performed. RESULTS: Addition of garlic extract as a surfactant with AH Plus sealer has shown better flow and wetting ability compared with AH Plus group alone