Successful root canal therapy depends on thorough debridement of pulpal tissue, dentin debris, and infective microorganisms. Currently, it is impossible to predictably eradicate intraradicular infection with mechanical instrumentation alone. Therefore, irrigants are required to be used as an important addition in the disinfection process. This chapter analyzes the main irrigating solutions used during the endodontic treatment and their actions and interactions among them. Explanation of their mechanism of action and effect on dentin structure and on biofi lm is also described. A clinical protocol is proposed at the end of the chapter.The goal of endodontic treatment is to prevent or cure apical periodontitis. Apical periodontitis is an infl ammatory process in the periradicular tissues caused by microorganisms in the infected root canal [ 84 ]. It is well known that shaping, cleaning, and obturating the root canal system provide the strategy for successful treatment. The principle to reach favorable outcomes in endodontic infection management requires the recognition of the problem and the removal of the etiological factors.In endodontic disinfection, there are two main challenges which are important to be recognized the anatomical challenge and the microbiological challenge [ 42 ].The anatomical challenge can be divided into complexity of the root canal system, dentin structure, and dentin constituents.
Anatomical Complexities (also see Chap. 2 ):Root canal is an enclosed complex space with intricate confi gurations and apical constriction it is important to mention here that more than 35 % of the root canal surface is left untouched by conventional instrumentation [ 35 , 64 ] (Fig. 5.1 ). Also, common instrumentation techniques accumulate debris in isthmus areas. Paque et al. showed explained that when rotary fi les are used in canal with a round cross section, the dentine particles that are cut from the canal wall are car-
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.