Aim: The aim of the present study was to investigate the antimicrobial effect of AH Plus and Ceraseal sealers with and without the incorporation of silver nanoparticles against Enterococcus faecalis using the direct contact assay.
Methodology: Silver nanoparticles were prepared by chemical reduction method. Direct Contact Test (DCT) was carried out by settling 50mg of freshly mixed sealer in a sterile flat bottom screw capped tube.Ten tubes were prepared for each sealer in duplicate as follow:Group(I): Ceraseal (Meta Biomed Co., Cheongju, Korea) , Group (II): Ceraseal& Nano silver gel, Group(III): AH Plus (Dentsply/Maillefer, Konstanz, Germany) and Group (IV): AH Plus & Nano silver gel. Antibacterialactivity was evaluated against Enterococcus faecalis ATCC 35550 at various time intervals 1 ,24 and 168 hours,.
Results: DCT results revealed that AH Plus had higher antibacterial activity against Enterococcus faecalis at different time intervals than Ceraseal sealer unaffected by (AgNPs)incorporation. But the incorporation of(AgNPs)significantly increased their antibacterial effect. All sealers had lost much of their antibacterial effects at 7 days interval.
Conclusion: AH Plus sealer had higher antibacterial effect than Ceraseal sealer. Incorporation of (AgNPs) silver nanoparticles can improve the antibacterial activity of AH Plus and Ceraseal sealer.