Alternative root canal filling materials to zinc oxide eugenol in primary teeth: a systematic review of the literature.

PURPOSE: The aim of this review was to compare the currently available root canal filling materials for primary teeth to zinc oxide eugenol (ZOE) to find a suitable alternative. The search question was: which root canal filling materials used in pulpectomy for primary teeth give better clinical and radiographic success rates than ZOE? METHODS: A systematic search was conducted using five databases, namely Cochrane central register of controlled trials (CENTRAL), MEDLINE via PubMed, Science Direct, Scopus and EBSCOhost using a selection of "MeSH terms". The "Modified Jadad Scale" was used for the methodology assessment of the included studies. RESULTS: Out of 480 articles identified in the initial search, 8 articles met all the inclusion criteria. The results showed that, compared to ZOE, ZOE with calcium hydroxide and iodoform had better clinical and radiographic success rates, a resorption rate similar to that of the roots, faster resorption of extruded particles and a maximum decrease in the size of pre-operative inter-radicular radiolucencies. CONCLUSION: Numerous materials, proposed and used by clinicians in root canal filling in primary teeth, can be recommended as alternatives to ZOE. However, none of them could be the ideal material in primary teeth. Thus, more high-quality well-designed randomised clinical trials are required to develop more high-performing materials.

Simultaneous determination of lidocaine and bupivacaine in human plasma: application to pharmacokinetics.

High-performance liquid chromatography has been applied to the simultaneous determination of lidocaine and bupivacaine levels in human plasma, using etidocaine as internal standard. The method was found to be linear in the range 10-2,000 micrograms/l for lidocaine and 20-1,000 micrograms/l for bupivacaine. Within-day and day-to-day coefficients of variation were generally lower than 12%. The method was applied to a pharmacokinetic study of lidocaine and bupivacaine during peribulbar anesthesia in ocular surgery. Both compounds displayed a slow apparent elimination rate. The method described here permitted the determination of the complete pharmacokinetic profiles of the two anesthetics, although they were administered at quite different doses.