Endodontic treatment, commonly known as root canal therapy, aims to eliminate infection and prevent reinfection of the dental pulp and surrounding tissues. The process involves cleaning and disinfecting the tooth’s interior, followed by filling and sealing it with a restorative material in a three-dimensional manner. The disinfection process entails mechanical instrumentation along with the application of irrigating solutions and intracanal medicaments. A variety of root canal irrigants have been employed to achieve optimal outcomes, including normal saline, oxidizing agents like hydrogen peroxide, chelating agents such as EDTA, sodium hypochlorite, chlorhexidine, and several natural substances like Triphala and green tea. Of these, the most frequently used irrigating solutions are sodium hypochlorite and chlorhexidine. Although both chemicals have demonstrated potential as root canal irrigants, they come with certain drawbacks. This highlights the need for further research to identify new chemicals that could serve as effective alternatives for root canal irrigation. A range of antimicrobial disinfectants used in medicine has been assessed for their potential as endodontic irrigants, among these is Octenidine Dihydrochloride . Multiple in-vitro studies have examined the antimicrobial effectiveness of Octenidine Dihydrochloride in comparison to other widely used root canal irrigants, with promising results. These studies suggest that this chemical could be a viable irrigant for use in patients’ mouth during endodontic treatment. Moreover, microorganisms that resists root canal treatment exist in low numbers in the root canal or can be located in areas of difficult access to paper points used for sampling. Thus, a low number of microbial cells may be collected and if less sensitive methods are used for identification these organisms pass unnoticed and their prevalence in failed cases can be over shadowed. Polymerase chain reaction has advantages of being tremendously sensitive and possibly less affected by chemical factors such as remnants of medications that can enter a sample and inhibit the microbial growth in the laboratory. This method can also detect the occurrence of fastidious or even uncultivable bacterial species in endodontic infections including the cases of secondary persistent infections associated with failed endodontic therapy. Epidemiological studies investigating the microbiota of root canal treated teeth have revealed that Enterococcus faecalis is the most commonly detected species associated with treatment failures irrespective of the method used for identification. Despite the existing literature on these agents, there remains a need for comparative studies assessing their antibacterial efficacy against endodontic microflora in vivo. Such research is crucial for understanding the effectiveness of these agents in clinical scenarios and guiding endodontic treatment protocols. |