Research Article Comparison of the Antifungal Efficacy of 1.3% NaOCl/MTAD with Other Routine Irrigants: An Ex-Vivo Study Neha Juneja 1 and Mithra N. Hegde 2 1 Conservative Dentistry & Endodontics, Manav Rachna Dental College, Manav Rachna Educational Institutions Aravalli Campus, Sector 43, Delhi-Surajkund Road, Faridabad, Haryana 121004, India 2 Conservative Dentistry & Endodontics, Department of Conservative Dentistry & Endodontics, A. B. Shetty Memorial Institute of Dental Sciences, Medical Sciences Complex, Deralakatte, Mangalore, Karnataka 575018, India Correspondence should be addressed to Neha Juneja; nehabhalla 1999@yahoo.com Received 23 June 2014; Revised 15 August 2014; Accepted 10 September 2014; Published 29 October 2014 Academic Editor: Hee-Jin Kim Copyright © 2014 N. Juneja and M. N. Hegde. Tis is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Objectives. To evaluate and compare the antifungal efcacy of 1.3% NaOCl/MTAD with 2.5% sodium hypochlorite (NaOCl), 2% chlorhexidine gluconate (CHX), and iodine potassium iodide (IKI). Materials and Methods. Fify-two single rooted teeth were used which were divided into four groups with 10 teeth in each group: 2.5% NaOCl, 2% CHX, IKI, 1.3% NaOCl/MTAD, and physiologic saline. Two teeth served as negative controls and were placed in fresh brain-heart infusion broth (BHI) afer autoclaving. Te teeth were inoculated and incubated with Candida albicans afer which the teeth were instrumented and irrigated with the test irrigants. Te frst microbial sampling was then performed and colony forming unit/mL (cfu/mL) was counted. Te second microbial sampling was performed 1 week afer instrumentation and irrigation. Results. Te test irrigants were efective against C. albicans in both the frst and second microbial samplings. When the irrigants were compared, there was no statistical diference in their activity in the 1st and 2nd microbial sampling. On comparison of the change in mean cfu/mL between the 1st and 2nd microbial samplings, the antifungal activity of the test irrigants was in the order 2.5% NaOCl > 2% CHX > 1.3% NaOCl/MTAD > IKI. 1. Introduction Infection of the root canals with bacteria causes pulpitis and leads to the initiation and progression of periapical periodontitis. Te obvious objective of endodontic treatment is thus to prevent or eliminate infection within the root canal [1]. Mechanical instrumentation for root canal debridement may leave certain areas of the root canal system untouched due to its complex anatomy. It has been shown that mechani- cal instrumentation without irrigation reduces but does not predictably eliminate microorganisms in the canal. Tus, a root canal irrigant is needed to achieve the goal of complete debridement of the canals [2]. In addition to the identifcation of bacterial strains, fungi have also been isolated from root canal infections, with the most common isolate being C. albicans [3]. In current practice, the most common irrigants used are sodium hypochlorite (NaOCl), chlorhexidine gluconate (CHX), and Iodine potassium iodide (IKI). Biopure MTAD cleanser (Dentsply/Tulsa) is a new root canal cleanser, intro- duced by Mahmoud Torabinejad and associates in the year 2003. MTAD combines a surfactant (0.5% Tween 80), an acid (4.25% citric acid), and a broad spectrum antibiotic (3% doxycycline) [4]. Studies on the efectiveness of NaOCl, CHX, and IKI against C. albicans show these irrigants to be useful in killing C. albicans. Waltimo et al. found in their study that NaOCl and IKI killed all the C. albicans within 30 seconds. Tey also tested CHX which they found to take 5 minutes to kill all the yeast cells [3]. Ruf et al. found 6% NaOCl and 2% CHX to be equally efective and signifcantly superior to Biopure MTAD in their antifungal activity [5]. However, there is still Hindawi Publishing Corporation International Scholarly Research Notices Volume 2014, Article ID 575748, 5 pages http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2014/575748