An $RC$ Plasma Device for Sterilization of Root Canal of Teeth

Abstract

The application of cold plasma in sterilization of a root canal of a tooth has recently attracted great attention. In this paper, a reliable and user-friendly plasma-jet device, which can generate plasma inside the root canal, is reported. The plasma can be touched by bare hands and can be directed manually by a user to place it into root canal for disinfection without causing any painful sensation. When He/O <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sub> (20%) is used as working gas, the rotational and vibrational temperatures of the plasma are about 300 K and 2700 K, respectively. The peak discharge current is about 10 mA. Preliminary inactivation experiment results show that it can efficiently kill <i xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">enterococcus</i> <i xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">faecalis</i> , one of the main types of bacterium causing failure of root-canal treatment in several minutes.