13/07/2022
For more than 30 years, the selection of the last apical preparation instrument during root canal treatments has been based either on "3 or more sizes larger than the first instrument to bind at the working lenght (Weine, 1989)", or on empirical recommendations based on the “one-size-fits-all” approach of commercially available kits. With great pride, in company of great research colleagues, we demonstrate a new, predictable, conservative and effective way to select a Master Apical Instrument to prepare each root canal individually, based on measurements obtained with cone beam computed tomography (CBCT). The master apical instrument was only 1 diameter larger (size/taper) than the widest canal diameter in each axial section obtained by CBCT. The proposed planned apical root canal preparation resulted in optimized root canal shaping with a substantial amount of prepared surface areas (mean >90%). I hope that our proposal has a positive impact on endodontics worldwide and serves as a contribution to increase the success of our treatments. The article is available at Journal of Endodontics:
https://authors.elsevier.com/c/1eK0QMa8OFK0T
Juan Pacheco-Yanes, DDS, MSc, Isbelia Gazzaneo, DDS, MSc, PhD, Andrea F. Campello, DDS, MSc, PhD, Marília F. Marceliano-Alves, DDS, MSc, PhD, Carlos Estrela, DDS, MSc, PhD, Mike R. Bueno, DDS, MSc, PhD, Ricardo T. Lopes, MSc, PhD, Isabela N. Rôças, DDS, MSc, PhD, Flávio R. F. Alves, DDS, MSc, PhD, and José F. Siqueira, Jr., DDS, MSc, PhD.