Comparative evaluation of contact angle of calcium hydroxide and triple antibiotic paste using chitosan as carrier

Introduction: Calcium hydroxide and triple antibiotic paste are both popular medicaments in endodontic therapy. Recently chitosan has been suggested as a carrier for these medicaments. This study was conducted with the objective of evaluating and comparing the contact angle, and thereby the wetting ability, of these 2 medicaments when used with chitosan against the surface of radicular dentin. Materials and Methods: 40 dentin blocks of thickness 2 mm were prepared and divided into 2 groups of 20 each. Controlled volume (0.1 ml) droplets of calcium hydroxide + 2% chitosan were placed onto the blocks in group I, and triple antibiotic paste + 2% chitosan in group II. The contact angle in each case was measured using Dataphysics OCA Easydrop software on a dynamic contact angle analyzer for 10 mins. Results were analyzed using unpaired t test. Results: Group I showed a mean contact angle of 64.55° and group II showed a mean contact angle of 54.9°. The mean difference between the 2 groups was found to be 9.65° which had high statistical significance (p<0.001). Conclusion: Triple antibiotic paste + 2% chitosan produced significantly better and faster wetting of radicular dentin as compared to calcium hydroxide + 2% chitosan.