antimicrobial properties of novel dental bioceramic sealers and conventional sealers against enterococcus faecalis

Objective: this study aimed to evaluate and compare the antimicrobial properties of two newly formulated tricalcium silicate-based (tcs) bioceramic sealers with those of two commercially available sealers against enterococcus faecalis.methods: the antibacterial properties of four sealers were tested: tcs sealer, tcs-amo (containing amoxicillin), pulpdent and endoseal mta. antibacterial activity was assessed using the agar diffusion test (adt) and direct contact test (dct) at four different time intervals: immediately after setting (t0), 24 hours (t1), 72 hours (t3) and 168 hours (t7). in the adt, antibacterial activity was determined by measuring the diameter (mm) of the zone of inhibition (zoi). in the dct, results were expressed as mean bacterial viability (cfu/ml). statistical analysis was conducted using two-way anova (p<0.05).results: according to the adt results, zoi diameters in the tcs and tcs-amo groups increased significantly over time (p<0.001). these two groups also demonstrated significantly larger zoi values at t0, t3, and t7 compared to the other groups (p<0.05). in the dct, bacterial viability in the tcs and tcs-amo groups increased significantly over time (p<0.001). the experimental sealers showed significantly lower bacterial viability than endoseal mta at the early time points (t0 and t1), but higher viability at the later stages (t3 and t7) (p<0.05).conclusion: the tcs and tcs-amo sealers exhibited strong antibacterial activity in the adt, with tcs-amo showing the highest efficacy on day 7. however, their effectiveness declined over time in the dct, indicating limited long-term antimicrobial activity against e.faecalis.