A STUDY ON THE ROOT CANAL MORPHOLOGY CHANGE BY NICKEL-TITANIUM AND STAINLESS STEEL FILE INSTRUMENTATION USING COMPUTERIZED TOMOGRAPHY

Nickel-Titanium file과 Stainless steel file을 이용한 근관형성시 컴퓨터 단층촬영사진상의 근관형태 변화에 관한 연구

The goals of root canal instrumentation are complete debridement of pulp tissue, removal of microbes and affected dentin, and proper cleaning and shaping of the root canal space before obturation. Instrumentation with stainless steel files has been shown to produce undesirable results in canals, regardless of the improved technique or modified file type used. Nickel-Titanium(Ni-Ti) alloy has been shown to be exceptionally elastic, having a lower bending moment and lower permanent set after torsion, compared with similar gauge stainless steel. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the change of root canal prepared by Ni-Ti rotary and stainless steel instruments. Thirty-four single rooted teeth of similar shape and canal size were divided into three groups. The teeth were scanned by computed tomography before instrumentation. In group 1, canals were instrumented using a step-back technique with K-file. In group 2, canals were prepared with K-flex file using the same technique as group 1. Group 3 was prepared with nickel-titanium(Ni-Ti) rotary instrument using a manufacture's instruction. Instrumented teeth were again scanned using computed tomography, and reformated images of the uninstrumented canals were compared with images of the instrumented canals. K-flex file and Ni-Ti file caused significantly less canal transportation than K-file in the 8mm root canal section from the apex(p<0.05). K-flex file and Ni-Ti file produced more centered canal preparation than K-file in the 2mm section(p<0.05). Ni-Ti file maintained more precisely the center of the canal than K-flex file in the 10mm section (p<0.05). There was no difference in the removed volume of canals among each groups.