A Comparison of the Effectiveness of Chloroform in Dissolving Dissolving Resilon and Gutta-Percha

Application of chemical solvents especially in problematic canals is usually apart of the retreatment process.This study was performed to compare the solubility of Gutta-Percha and Resilon in chloroform and to find the effect of sample thickness as well asthe time of shaking on their solubility.Materials and Methods: Specific weight of Resilon and gutta-percha was placed in asample tube and after adding 1.0 ml of chloroform at 37ºC, the tubes were capped andshaked for 1, 3 and 5 minutes. The amount of non dissolved material was determined byreweighting of each sample and the percent of solubility was assessed according to the exactweight loss of the samples. The procedure was repeated three times for a given thicknessand time of shaking. The difference in the solubility of Gutta-Percha and Resilon aswell as the effect of sample thickness and time of shaking on solubility were assessed byrepeated measurement ANOVA (p<0.05).Results: Resilon has significantly higher solubility than Gutta-Percha in chloroform(p<0.05). Resilon as well as Gutta-Percha Solubility are increased significantly over thetime .The amount of solubility is not affected by sample thickness.Conclusion: Comparison of Resilon and Gutta-Percha solubility in chloroform showsthat one of the advantages for Resilon could be the chance for using possible safer organicsolvents during retreatment.