Effectiveness of hand and rotary instruments in retreatment of teeth filled with resin-based filling material: An in vitro study

Abstract

Introduction: Determination of the canal wall cleanliness and to detect the residual filling material after removal of old obturating material. Materials and Methods: Thirty single-rooted premolar teeth were instrumented with rotary universal Protaper to size F2 and filled with resilon. The removal of root canal fillings was done with manual Hedstrom files and rotary Protaper retreatment files (RPRs) with orange oil as a solvent. Two-dimensional images of the obturated and retreated roots were evaluated with AutoCAD for percentage of remaining filling material. This area was confirmed under the scanning electron microscope. The data were statistically analyzed by t-test to identify differences. Results: Statistically significant differences were obtained for remaining filling material between hand and rotary both the groups. It was found that the canals instrumented with RPRs had lesser percentage of remaining filling material as compared to the hand files. Residual filling material and debris was found mostly in the apical portion of the root canal, however middle and cervical portions were relatively clean. Conclusion: RPRs were efficient in removing resilon from root canals as compared to the hand files.