Abstract
ObjectiveThe aim of this study was to quantify the surface area, volume and specific surface area of endodontic files employing quantitative X-ray micro computed tomography (mXCT). Material and MethodsThree sets (six files each) of the Flex-Master Ni-Ti system (Nº 20, 25 and 30, taper .04) were utilized in this study. The files were scanned by mXCT. The surface area and volume of all files were determined from the cutting tip up to 16 mm. The data from the surface area, volume and specific area were statistically evaluated using the one-way ANOVA and SNK multiple comparison tests at α=0.05, employing the file size as a discriminating variable. The correlation between the surface area and volume with nominal ISO sizes were tested employing linear regression analysis. ResultsThe surface area and volume of Nº 30 files showed the highest value followed by Nº 25 and Nº 20 and the differences were statistically significant. The Nº 20 files showed a significantly higher specific surface area compared to Nº 25 and Nº 30. The increase in surface and volume towards higher file sizes follows a linear relationship with the nominal ISO sizes (r2=0.930 for surface area and r2=0.974 for volume respectively). Results indicated that the surface area and volume demonstrated an almost linear increase while the specific surface area exhibited an abrupt decrease towards higher sizes. ConclusionsThis study demonstrates that mXCT can be effectively applied to discriminate very small differences in the geometrical features of endodontic micro-instruments, while providing quantitative information for their geometrical properties.
Highlights
X-ray micro computed tomography has many applications in various fields including medicine, geology, materials science, dentistry, art and archaeology, among others4,5,10,13
It is noteworthy that this analysis provided significant differences for the endodontic files with different International Standard Organization (ISO) sizes, demonstrating the ability of this analysis to discriminate the quantitative differences of the geometrical characteristics among the different endodontic file sizes
The mXCT device used in this study has a maximum isotropic resolution of 1.8 μm but the maximum achievable isotropic resolution for endodontic file scanning remained at 2.36 μm, due to dimensional constraints
Summary
X-ray micro computed tomography (mXCT) has many applications in various fields including medicine, geology, materials science, dentistry, art and archaeology, among others. MXCT has been extensively used to quantify the geometrical changes in the root canal anatomy during endodontic therapy, comparing pre and post instrumentation analyses. Root canals receive a chemo-mechanical treatment with successively larger endodontic files (Figure 1) in order to prepare the anatomy and surface of. The root canal to support the dental posts. This is a very demanding task as endodontic files must cut the dentin and remove the dental debris, preserving the curvature of the root canals without fracture. Root fracture is the biggest complication during instrumentation, jeopardizing the outcome of endodontic therapy. Despite the evolution of endodontic files over the last four decades and the large number of available endodontic systems, no system is free of problems and drawbacks
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