Effect of duration and dilution on antimicrobial efficacy of octenidine hydrochloride as an intracanal medicament with chitosan carrier against Enterococcus faecalis – A modified direct contact test

摘要

Background: Theambiguity in key influentialfactors such as minimaltimeforeffectiveaction, dilution,and need of drug carrier for intracanalmedicaments necessitatesa microbialanalysis thataids in the potentialselection ofan intracanalmedicament forensuring optimalrootcanal disinfection. Aims: This study aims to evaluatetheantimicrobialefficacy of octenidine hydrochloride(OHC)and gold standard calciumhydroxide(Ca(OH) 2 )as intracanalmedicaments, both independently and alongwith chitosan (CTS)as medicament vehicleagainst thecommon resistantendopathogen – Enterococcus faecalis. Materials andMethods: Amodified directcontactmicrobialtest was used to evaluatetheamount ofsurviving bacteriaafter predetermined contact time(2, 5, 20,and 60 min)and 5-fold serial dilution of theintracanalmedicaments. Theexperiment wascarried out underasepticconditionsand performed in triplicateto ensurereproducibility. Statistical Analysis Used: Theresults wereanalyzed byKruskal–Wallisanalysis of variancefollowed by pairwisecomparisons byMann–WhitneyU-test. Results andConclusions: The results showed thatallthefour medicament groups wereableto showthe maximumantimicrobialefficacy against E. faecalisat 60 min timeintervaland that the antimicrobialefficacy ofOHC and Ca(OH) 2 wasat its peak when used alone. Thestudy thereby concluded that theaddition ofCTS asacarrier did notenhancethe antimicrobialefficacy ofOHC or Ca(OH) 2 against E. faecalis.