An effective artificial testing model to reliability experiments for electronic apex locator devices used in endodontic practice.

Abstract

This experimental study aimed to investigate the reliability of using electronic apex locator devices to determine the working length of artificial root canals. The experiments were performed using resin endoblocks and mandibular canine teeth (n = 20/group). After the same working length of root canal samples was provided, the teeth and artificial root canals were embedded in an alginate mold. The measurements with Root ZX® and Propex Pixi® apex locators were performed and recorded. The data were analyzed using SPSS software (SPSS V23; IBM Corp., Armonk, New York, USA) and the variance was set at P < 0.05. There was no significant difference between the groups; mean distance from the actual working length using different apex locators (P = 0.633, P = 0.474), and endpoint positioning distributions (P = 0.591). The results indicate that the artificial model could be a laboratory method of determining the accuracy of apex locators and efficient calibration of devices before their clinical use.