Cleaning efficacy of two kinds of mechanical nickel-titanium instruments in preparation of severely curved root canals: A scanning electron microscopic study / 中国组织工程研究

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: The preparation and cleaning of severely curved root canal is the difficult point of root canal treatment. A large number of smear layer will be produced in the process of root canal preparation. Removing effectively these debris and smear layer will be conducive to improving the success rate and longterm effect of severely curved root canal treatment. OBJECTIVE: To explore the cleaning efficacy of Twisted File and ProTaper file combined with chemical preparation on smear layer of severely curved root canal by scanning electron microscope. METHODS: Twenty clinically extracted mandibular molars with severely curved root canals were collected and randomly divided into two groups Twisted File group and ProTaper group. The root canals were prepared by Twisted file and ProTaper Ni-Ti file, respectively. They were prepared by chemical method with 3% NaClO and 17% EDTA. After preparation, the root canals were split longitudinally and the cleaning efficacy of smear layer of coronal, middle and apical thirds was observed by scanning electron microscope. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: (1) The images of scanning electron microscope showed that the dentinal tubules of root canal coronal thirds in the ProTaper group and Twisted file group were completely open, almost without smear layer. Dentinal tubules of middle thirds were also open, and simply part of them were covered by smear layer. However, dentinal tubules of apical thirds had few and no obvious opening, and was covered by a large number of smear layer. (2) In Twisted file group, the scores of smear layer at root canal apical thirds were higher than coronal and middle thirds (P 0.05). (3) The results showed that the chemo-mechanical preparation with Twisted File and ProTaper could remove effectively the debris and smear layer in the root canal walls of coronal and middle thirds of the severely curved crown, but the removal effect on apical thirds and dentin tubules was not good.