Physicochemical properties of two commercially available bioceramic sealers: An in vitro study

Abstract

A great number of bioceramic sealers commercially available nowadays show a great diversity in their biological, chemical, and physical properties. Such differences can also significantly affect clinical performance, and consequently, new commercially available products must be carefully investigated to assess quality and check differences with existing products. The current in vitro study investigated five physicochemical properties (setting time, solubility, pH analysis, radiopacity, and film thickness) of two commercially available bioceramic sealers. The null hypothesis was that the composition of the two products was the same, the manufacturing site was the same and consequently, they should exhibit the same properties when subjected to in vitro tests. Tests were conducted based on the International Standard Organization (ISO) 6876/2012 recommendations. For each test 10 samples for each product were evaluated. All data were recorded and analyzed statistically by ANOVA and Tukey’s test at the 5% significance level. For all tests, no statistically significant differences were found between the two groups. Based on the findings of this study, we may conclude that there is a great similarity in chemical composition and manufacturing or, more likely, the two products, which are made by the same manufacturers, are identical.