Bacterial Leakage Testing in Dentistry: A Comprehensive Review on Methods, Models, and Clinical Relevance

TL;DR

This paper reviews methods for testing bacterial leakage in dentistry and its impact on treatment success.

Contribution

The study provides a detailed review of bacterial leakage testing methods and their clinical relevance.

Findings

Bacterial leakage increases treatment failure due to trapped bacteria in the smear layer.

Only 26 out of 2252 articles met the inclusion criteria for bacterial leakage testing.

Sealing ability of dental materials is crucial for preventing bacterial ingestion.

Abstract

The marginal gap increases the rate of bacterial leakage and treatment failure; the measurement of the marginal gap is questionable. The literature revealed that when bacteria get trapped within the smear layer, they can multiply and re-contaminate the root canal system, leading to treatment failure.

A literature search was carried out in multiple databases, including PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, and ScienceDirect, with the help of MeSH terms such as Bacterial infection, Bacterial leakage, Dental leakage, Dental material, Root canal preparation, Root canal obturation, and Tooth penetration.

The initial result of the search showed 2252 articles that were relevant enough. However, only 26 articles were eligible based on inclusion criteria.

The bacterial leakage test can evaluate one of the most essential properties of dental material: sealing ability. The sealing ability of a dental material can prevent bacterial ingestion and reduce the treatment failure rate. This study discussed all the steps of the bacterial leakage test in detail. This study can help the researcher plan and run a bacterial leakage study successfully, and the results can help clinicians choose the best sealing material for the clinical scenario.

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