Assessment of the dentine microhardness following the application of different intracanal medicaments. An in-vitro study

Abstract Background Intracanal medications used during routine endodontic treatment and regenerative endodontic procedures might cause undesirable effects on tooth properties, such as a reduction in dentine microhardness. Objectives To compare the effect of five intracanal medicaments; Bio-C Temp (Angelus, Brazil), modified triple antibiotic electrospun nanofibers (m-TAP) (NanoEbers, Egypt), Levofloxacin (Memphis, Egypt), Calcium hydroxide (CH) (Meta biomed, Korea) and Simvastatin (Merck & Co., USA) on the microhardness of radicular dentine. Methods Forty-five extracted single-rooted teeth were decoronated to a 15 mm root length then prepared. The specimens were assigned to five groups according to the used intracanal medicament: Bio-C Temp, m-TAP nanofibers, Levofloxacin, CH, and Simvastatin. After medicament application for two weeks, dentine microhardness was measured using a Vickers microhardness tester. Data were analyzed using the Kruskal–Wallis and Mann–Whitney U tests with a significance level set at p  < 0.05. Results Bio-C Temp, and m-TAP nanofibers recorded the highest overall dentine microhardness values, followed by Levofloxacin and Simvastatin, while CH showed the lowest. Significant differences were observed among the tested groups at the coronal and middle levels ( p  <  0.05 ), whereas no significant difference was found apically. Conclusions Bio-C Temp, and m-TAP nanofibers demonstrated superior ability to preserve dentine microhardness, suggesting their promising potential advantage over conventional medicaments for strengthening root dentine.