Assessment of the Outcome of Endodontic Treatment Using Cone Beam Computed Tomography.
Assessment of the Outcome of Endodontic Treatment Using Cone Beam Computed Tomography.
The aim of the study is to assess the correlation between pre-obturation bacterial detection
 using fluorescence amplification and outcome of endodontic treatments. Thus, enabling a
 suitable detection threshold to predict the likelihood of treatment failure. This has the
 potential to be used a bench side tool in general dental practice to act as a surrogate
 endpoint for clinicians performing root canal treatment.
Pre-obturation root canal samples were taken using paper points from patients undergoing
 primary root treatments. The samples were analyzed using a fluorescent spectrometer and a
 molecular fluorescent vital dye (Calcein AM).

 Pre-operative and 1-year post-operative periapical radiographs and Cone Beam Computed
 Tomography (CBCT) scans were assessed by two calibrated expert examiners to evaluate the
 outcome of the root canal treatments.

 The use of a chairside bacterial stain can allow the clinician to predict the outcome of
 treatment with confidence. Sampling the root canal space with endodontic paper points
 followed by ex-situ fluorescent staining and analysis provides a patient-friendly, simple to
 use and rapid way of predicting root canal treatment outcome.
Inclusion Criteria:

 -  Patients with at least one tooth diagnosed with the endodontic disease.

 -  teeth that were tender to percussion and palpation.

 -  teeth that had a sinus tract and/ swelling.

 -  Both primary treatment teeth and teeth which had already been root treated were
 considered.

 Exclusion Criteria:

 -  Patients were excluded if they were pregnant.

 -  Immunosuppressed patients.

 -  Non-restorable teeth.

 -  Teeth with a periodontal probing depth greater than 3mm.

 -  Teeth with apical radiolucencies with the longest dimension above 1.2cm.