Efficiency of the nickel-titanium rotary instruments for glide path preparation: in-vitro preliminary study

Abstract

Objectives: This preliminary study compared the effects of glide path establishing instruments prior to substantial root canal preparation. Materials and Methods: Glide path was established by enlargement of the 2nd mesiobuccal root canal of Dentalike by using three kinds of glide path preparation nickel-titanium file; PathFile, One G and ProGlider. The pre- and post-instrumented Dentalikes were weighed in the resolution of 1 / 10mg. In addition, after glide path preparation, torque generated during shaping using the WavoOne file was measured. The data were analyzed by one-way ANOVA and Tukey post-hoc test at a significance level of 95%. Results: The ProGlider had the significantly larger amount of reduced weight than other instrument groups (p < 0.05). There was no significant difference between group of glide path preparation with ProGlider and without glide path preparation in maximum torque and total stress generation during the shaping with WaveOne. Conclusions: Glide path preparation instruments may have different efficiency according to their geometries. The Dentalike artificial teeth were revealed to have discrepancies in the size of root canals by microCT examination. It is impossible to make a meaningful judgment of the results due to the reliability or resolution problem of the root canal size of the artificial tooth selected as the standardized tooth.