in vitro evaluation of different solvents for retrieval of mineral trioxide aggregate and calcium-enriched mixture

introduction: the purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of different solvents; carbonic acid (h 2 co 3 ), hydrochloric acid (hcl), chlorhexidine (chx) and sodium hypochlorite (naocl) on the surface hardness of mineral trioxide aggregate (mta) and calcium-enriched mixture (cem) cement. methods and materials: plexiglass molds were prepared and filled with angelus mta or cem cement and then exposed to 2% carbonic acid, 37% hydrochloric acid, 2% chlorhexidine, 5.25% sodium hypochlorite and normal saline at intervals of 1 and 21 days, respectively ( n =4). surface microhardness of all specimens was analyzed by a universal testing machine and an electron microscope for some selected samples. data were analyzed using the three-way anova. subgroup analysis was performed by student’s t-test, one-way anova and tukey’s tests. the level of significance was set at 0.05. results: on the first day, all solvents and on 21 st day hcl, and h 2 co 3 were more effective in reducing the microhardness of mta compared to cem cement ( p <0.05). conclusion: the two experimental cements were differently affected by the solvents at specific time intervals. the solvents were more effective on mta.