The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of moisture on apical sealing properties of root canal. Fifty five single rooted human teeth were selected from maxillary and mandibular teeth. After removing crown portion at the cemento-enamel junction, all teeth were routinely prepared with step-back method. And then, the canals were dried with paper point and the teeth were randomly divided into 3 groups of 15 teeth each, and remaining 10 teeth were used as positive and negative control teeth : Group 1 were irrigated with 1ml of 95% alcohol and dried with air and paper point. Group 2 and 3 were intentionally contaminated with 0.05ml of 3.5% NaOCl or saliva, respectively. All the teeth were obturated with sealapex and gutta percha cone by lateral condensation technique, and covered with two coat of nail varnish after 48 hours of obturation. The teeth were immersed in india ink for 1 week and cleaned with methyl salicylate and then the degree of dye penetration were measured with stereomicroscope. The data were analyzed statistically by one-way ANOVA. The results were as follows : 1. All experimental groups showed varying degrees of dye penetration, and the mean degree of dye penetration was 0.1mm to 0.7mm. 2. Saliva contamination group(group 3) showed the highest amount of dye penetration, followed by NaOCl contamination group, then alcohol dried group, but there was no significant difference among three experimental groups. * This results suggest that there was no significant differences of apical leakage after canal obturation between alcohol dried canal and moisture present canals and the use of alcohol instead of paper point is unnecessary to dry the canals prior to canal filling. But other factors such as bacterial contamination and sealer discoloration by moisture must be considered in application of this results to clinical practice.