Effectiveness of gutta-percha and Resilon in filling lateral root canals using thermomechanical technique

objective: the aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of gutta-percha and resilon in filling lateral root canals in cervical, middle, and apical third using a thermomechanical technique. material and method: root canals of artificial teeth were prepared using a standard preparation. the lateral canals were fabricated using a 0.3-mm-diameter bur at 3 parts of each root. by using tagger's hybrid technique with a mcspadden thermomechanical compactor, the root canal was filled using the following filling materials: dentsply gutta-percha, endopoint gutta-percha, and resilon cones. the root canal fillings were evaluated using digitized radiographs and the image tool software. the percentage of filled area of each lateral canal was determined. the data were subjected to analysis of variance (anova) and tukey tests at a 5% significance level. result: resilon showed better effectiveness as a filling material. when the three thirds were compared, resilon was more effective in the apical third than in the cervical third (p < 0.05). conclusion: resilon is an effective filling material for lateral root canals using a thermomechanical technique.