Evaluation of the Efficacy of Caries Removal Using Polymer Bur, Stainless Steel Bur, Carisolv, Papacarie - An Invitro Comparative Study

Context: Dental caries continues to affect a significant portion of the world population and treatment of the decay is associated with pain by many patients. Intervention and application of rotary instruments for treatment of carious lesions has often resulted in considerable removal of tooth structure. Chemo-mechanical method, a minimal invasive technique for caries removal was developed to overcome these shortcomings. This innovative method seems to be efficient in removing infected dentine without altering the healthy dental tissue or harming the adjacent oral mucosa. Aim: To evaluate the efficacy and efficiency of Caries removal Using Polymer Bur, Stainless Steel Bur, Carisolv and Papacarie. Materials and Methods: A total of 120 sectioned specimens were obtained from 60 extracted teeth. Each tooth was sectioned mesiodistally in the center of the carious lesion so that two halves (buccal and lingual or palatal) having equal sized carious lesions are compared. The sectioned specimens were subdivided into four groups (Polymer Bur, Stainless Steel Bur, Carisolv, Papacarie) allotting 30 specimens to each for caries excavation. Results: One-way ANOVA, Chi-square test analysis was done for comparison between groups which showed significant results with Stainless Steel Bur excavation taking less mean time when compared to other agents and Polymer Bur showed more amount of bacterial remnants after excavation whereas Carisolv and Papacarie were efficient with less dentinal tubule destruction and bacterial remnants after excavation. Further inter comparison between groups was done using Paired t-test and Fischer's Exact-test. Conclusion: The Mean time taken by Stainless Steel Bur excavation was found to be less and caused more amount of dentinal tubule destruction when compared to Polymer Bur, Carisolv and Papacarie. Chemo-mechanical methods found to be more efficient with lesser amount of bacterial remnants and dentinal tubule destruction after caries excavation when compared to conventional methods.