Comparison of smear layer removing efficacy of Cold Atmospheric Pressure (CAP) Plasma Jet with different chelating agents. An ex-vivo study

Figures & data

Figure 1. Sample scoring of the SEM image.

Table 1. Inter-group comparison of median values of the final scores in control, EDTA, MTAD and CAP Plasma Jet.

Group	Median (IQR)	P value (Pairwise groups)
		EDTA	MTAD	CAP
Control	0.0 (0.0, 0.0)	2.32 × 10^−10	3.64 × 10^−15	0.06
EDTA	12.0 (0.0, 16.0)		0.83	3.27 × 10^−4
MTAD	16.0 (0.5, 16.0)			2.1 × 10^−7
CAP	0.0 (0.0, 8.0)

IQR- Interquartile Range, P-value < 0.05 is significant.

Table 2. Intra group comparisons of the median values of the final scores in coronal, middle and apical third of the samples analyzed.

Group	Region	Median (IQR)	P-value (All sub-groups)	P value
				Middle	Apical
Control	Coronal third	0.0 (0.0, 0.0)	0.05	0.0933	0.0933
	Middle third	0.0 (0.0, 0.0)			1
	Apical third	0.0 (0.0, 0.0)
EDTA	Coronal third	15.0 (7.0, 16.0)	0.0001	1	0.0005
	Middle third	16.0 (6.0, 16.0)			0.0007
	Apical third	0.0 (0.0, 5.0)
MTAD	Coronal third	16.0 (16.0, 16.0)	0.0009	0.4125	0.0006
	Middle third	16.0 (5.0, 16.0)			0.0805
	Apical third	0.0 (0.0, 16.0)
CAP	Coronal third	8.0 (0.0, 14.0)	8.12 × 10^−6	5.59 × 10^−3	5.57 × 10^−3
	Middle third	0.0 (0.0, 0.0)			0.292
	Apical third	0.0 (0.0, 0.0)

IQR- interquartile range, P-value < 0.05 is significant.

Table 3. Inter-group comparison of median values of the final scores in coronal, middle and apical third regions.

Region	Group	Median (IQR)	P value (All groups)	P value (Pairwise groups)
				EDTA	MTAD	CAP
Coronal third	Control	0.0 (0.0, 0.0)	5.02 × 10^−8	1.09 × 10^−4	3.80 × 10^−8	3.46 × 10^−2
	EDTA	15.0 (7.0, 16.0)			0.7683	0.7633
	MTAD	16.0 (16.0, 16.0)				0.0138
	CAP	8.0 (0.0, 14.0)
Middle third	Control	0.0 (0.0, 0.0)	4.19 × 10^−9	4.00 × 10^−6	1.04 × 10^−6	1.00
	EDTA	16.0 (6.0, 16.0)			1.00	1.00 × 10^−3
	MTAD	16.0 (5.0, 16.0)				3.54 × 10^−4
	CAP	0.0 (0.0, 0.0)
Apical third	Control	0.0 (0.0, 0.0)	9.27 × 10^−5	0.0254	0.0020	1.0000
	EDTA	0.0 (0.0, 5.0)			1.0000	0.0254
	MTAD	0.0 (0.0, 16.0)				0.0020
	CAP	0.0 (0.0, 0.0)

IQR- interquartile range, P-value < 0.05 is significant.

Figure 2. Representative SEM images of the samples analyzed.