Comparative in vitro study of root roughness after instrumentation with ultrasonic and diamond tip sonic scaler

Objective: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the root surface roughness after instrumentation with hand curette and diamond-coated sonic and universal ultrasonic tips. Materials and Methods: Forty root surfaces of human teeth were randomly assigned to four treatment groups: control group (without instrumentation), curette instrumentation, ultrasonic instrumentation with universal tip and sonic instrumentation with diamond-coated tip. Each sample was instrumented with fifteen strokes. Before and after instrumentation, surface roughness was measured. In addition, the root surface topography was examined after treatment under the scanning electron microscope. Results: Significant statistical differences (p<0.05) were observed when comparing the control group (0.48±0.07mm) to the treated groups (hand - 1.246±0.279mm, ultrasonic - 1.468±0.177mm and sonic instrumentation - 1.576±0.20mm). The highest roughness was produced by diamond-coated sonic tip and by ultrasonic universal tip (p>0.05). Conclusion: The diamond-coated tip with sonic scaler instrumentation and ultrasonic instrumentation produce similar root surface roughness, higher than curette instrumentation.