To evaluate the change of working length with various instrumentation techniques in curved canals, working length and canal curvature were determined before and after canal instrumentation in buccal or mesial canals of extracted human molars. Stainless steel K-files (MANI®, Matsutani Seisakusho Co. Takanezawa, Japan), nickel-titanium K-files (Naviflex NT™, Brassler, Savannah, USA), ProFile®, and ProTaper™ (Dentsply-Maillefer, Ballaigues, Switzerland) were used to prepare the canals with crown-down technique. In two hand instrumentation groups, coronal flaring was made with Gates Glidden burs. Apical canals were instrumented until apical diameter had attained a size of 30. Positional relation between the tooth apex and the #10 K-file tip was examined by using AutoCAD 2000 (Autodesk Corp., San Rafael. CA, USA) under a stereomicroscope before and after coronal flaring, and after apical instrumentation. Degree of canal curvature was also measured with Schneider's method in radiographs. Data of working length and canal curvature changes were statistically analyzed with one-way ANOVA and Tukey's studentized range test.

Working length and canal curvature were decreased significantly in each step in all instrumentation groups. Coronal flaring using Gates Glidden burs in hand instrument groups and whole canal instrumentation using stainless steel hand K-files caused significantly more working length change than in ProFile instrumentation group (p < 0.05).

The result of this study demonstrates that all of the above kinds of instrumentation in curved canals cause reduction of working length and canal curvature at each instrumentation steps, and hand instrumentation causes more working length change than ProFile.

Citations

Citations to this article as recorded by  

• Does Root Canal Shaping Effect the Accuracy of Electronic Apex Locators in Curved and Straight Root Canals?
  Dide Tekinarslan, Damla Erkal, Esen Ercan, Simay Koc, Kürşat Er
  Clinical and Experimental Health Sciences.2024; 14(3): 727.     CrossRef
• Comparative Study of Four Endodontic File Systems to Assess Changes in Working Length during Root Canal Instrumentation and the Effect of Canal Curvature on Working Length Change
  Michelle Tien, Hermawan Tjoa, Maggie Zhou, Paul V. Abbott
  Journal of Endodontics.2020; 46(1): 110.     CrossRef
• Study of endodontic working length of Korean posterior teeth
  Jeong-Yeob Kim, Sang-Hoon Lee, Gwang-Hee Lee, Sang-Hyuk Park
  Journal of Korean Academy of Conservative Dentistry.2010; 35(6): 429.     CrossRef

The purpose of this study was to investigate the quantity of debris which was extruded apically after canal instrumentation using different types of enlarging instrument in endodontic resin models.

Five groups of 9 endodontic resin models were instrumented using each different technique: hand instrumentation without early coronal flaring, hand instrumentation after early coronal flaring, and three nickel-titanium engine-driven instrumentations (Hero 642, Protaper, K³). Debris extruded from apical foramen during instrumentation was collected on preweighed CBC bottle, desiccated and weighted using electronic balance. The results were analyzed using Kruskal-wallis test and Mann-Whitney U rank sum test at a significance level of 0.05.

The results were as follows:

All of instrumentation techniques produced apically extruded debris.

The early coronal flaring is very important to reduce the amount of debris extruded apically.