DISCUSSION Almost 74% of the dental practitioners surveyed performed endodontic treatment. Amongst them, 78% of endodontists and 8% of non-endodontists used sodium hypochlorite. Sodium hypochlorite was considered the irrigant with best antimicrobial property by 90% of endodontists and 78.6% of non-endodontists due to fact that it has both pulpal dissolution and antimicrobial activity. NaOCl is a strong base with a pH >1 and behaves like an organic solvent causing amino acid degradation and hydrolysis by the production of chloramines molecules 12. 17.5% endodontists and 18.6% non-endodontists opted chlorhexidine as the irrigant with the best antimicrobial action. It has been suggested that chlorhexidine is sporostatic but not sporicidal 13, and is said to have a disadvantage of not dissolving organic tissue, and therefore cannot be considered as the irrigant with best antimicrobial action. Only 23.3% non-endodontists agree that sodium hypochlorite is the inevitable irrigant during root canal …show more content…
Sodium hypochlorite is unable to remove smear layer during root canal therapy. Therefore, usage of NaOCl prior or after instrumentation produces superficially clean canals with the presence of smear layer 16,17,18,19. Although, when used alternatively with EDTA, removal of smear layer as well as soft tissue and debris is achieved. NaOCl gets inactivated with EDTA remaining active for a few hours 19,20,21,22. 92% of the non-endodontists were not aware about the use of sodium hypochlorite as a bleaching agent and considered irrigation to be its only use. Liquid chlorine bleach, an alkaline solution of sodium hypochlorite is highly effective on white fabrics and provides germicidal activity as