In Vivo Intracanal Temperature Evolution during Endodontic Treatment after the Injection of Room Temperature or Preheated Sodium Hypochlorite

Introduction: Heating a sodium hypochlorite solution improves its effectiveness. The aim of this study was to measure the in vivo temperature changes of sodium hypochlorite solutions that were initially preheated to 66 degrees C or at room temperature inside root canals during routine irrigation. Methods: Thirty-five root canals were prepared to ISO size 40 with 4% taper. A type K (nickel-chromium-nickel) thermocouple microprobe (Testo NV, Ternat, Belgium) was positioned within 3 mm of the working length to measure the temperature at 1-second intervals. In each canal, 2 test protocols were evaluated in a randomized order with 3% sodium hypochlorite solutions: (1) preheated to 66 degrees C and (2) at room temperature. The temperature measurements began 5 seconds before the 25 seconds of irrigant injections and continued for 240 seconds. This resulted in 270 data points for each protocol. Results: The temperature of the irrigant at room temperature increased from the initial intracanal temperature after injection of 20.7 degrees C (+/- 1.2 degrees C) to 30.9 degrees C (+/- 1.3 degrees C) in 10 seconds and to 35 degrees C (+/- 0.9 degrees C) after 240 seconds. The temperature of the preheated to 66 degrees C solution decreased from 56.4 degrees C (+/- 2.7 degrees C) to 45.4 degrees C (+/- 3.0 degrees C) after 5 seconds, reached 37 degrees C (+/- 0.9 degrees C) after 60 seconds, and reached 35.7 degrees C (+/- 0.8 degrees C) after 240 seconds. Conclusions: The original temperatures of the sodium hypochlorite solutions were buffered inside the root canal and tended to rapidly evolve to equilibrium. The findings of this study contribute to an improved understanding of the thermodynamic behaviors of irrigant solutions inside root canals in vivo.