Chair side disinfection of obturating materials in endodontic treatment

Objective: In clinical practice the dentist is occasionally faced with the problem of infection that occurs after obturation of the root canal space. One of the possible explanation for this phenomenon may be introduction of contaminated gutta percha cones. The present review was undertaken to keep the dentist abreast of rapid chair side means of decontaminating the cones which would help them to maintain the chain of asepsis while handing gutta percha points and possibly help reduce the amount of endodontic failures. Methods: A search of published studies in PubMed and Google was conducted for the keywords "gutta percha," "sterilization." All relevant pubmed indexed journal studies were selected and the most commonly used sterilizing agents were reviewed.