Evaluating the Effectiveness of Iranian and Korean Injectable IntracanalCalcium Hydroxide on Candida albicans, In vitro

Candida albicans is one of the mouth normal flora which may cause failures in endodontics. The resistance of C. albicans to intracanal medicaments such as calcium hydroxide could reduce success rate root canal treatments . Objectives: Due to recivening some reports regarding resistance of C. albicans to calcium hydroxide from different parts of the world, the aim of this study was to evaluate anti candidal effects of Iranian and Korean made injectable calcium hydroxide and to compare the results. Materials and Methods: In the present research, the antifungal effects of calcium hydroxide on seven clinical isolates and one standard strain of C. albicans were evaluated. For this evaluation, two methods were used including: inhibition zone and colony count. In all experiments distilled water and clotrimazole were used as negative and positive controls, respectively. In order to evaluate the effects of exposure time of calcium hydroxide on C. albicans growth, 30” , 5’ , 1 and 24 hours of incubation periods were applied. In addition, to evaluate role the effect of calcium hydroxide concentration samples with saturated, 1/10, 1/100 and 1/1000 dilutions and also a saturated one were used. Results: According to inhibition zone method, the mean diameters of C. albicans for Iranian and Korean made calcium hydroxide and clotrimazole were 17, 13 and 22 mm, respectively. Iranian and Korean calcium hydroxide did not show any anti candidal effects. By colony counting method, it was found that in longer exposure time, Iranian and Korean calcium hydroxide have more anti candidal effects , but no significant difference was observed between the two. Saturated and all other dilutions of calcium hydroxide base material indicated a significant statistical difference in anti candidal effect after 24 hours exposure in comparison with other periods. Conclusions: The Current study, confirmed that the inhibitory effect of Iranian and Korean calcium hydroxide on C. albicans, up to 24 hours is within low range . Higher concentrations of base calcium hydroxide, showed greater inhibition zone on C. albicans .