by Dr Nick Teo, Tindale Dental, Penrith, NSW
Most dentists dread working on root canals because of hand files. I always say to my colleagues, if you aren’t using a rotary endo, that’s probably the reason why you hate root canals. When I started at Tindale Dental, they were using the Protaper system and my boss strongly suggested I take a course and learn how to use it. My life immediately became much easier.
What’s good about it
This rotary endodontic instrument make root canals a whole lot easier and quicker. It produces a consistent and reproducible result that doesn’t leave you with a horrible thumb cramp like the old hand files. It also allows you to access teeth further back in the mouth.
The files that come with this system are nickel-titanium which makes them very flexible. You could grab a file, bend it into a U-shape and it will spring back to its original position. That’s not to say that you don’t occasionally get breakages when the canal is extremely curved. However, it very rarely happens with the Protaper system because of the torque strength and speed of the file settings.
What’s not so good
Being a fairly straightforward instrument, there’s not much more that can be done to improve it. It cleans out the canals, rarely breaks and can be controlled in the same manner as a hand file. It’s a very consistent tool. The only way it could be improved is if the material from which it is manufactured was upgraded so that it could negotiate canals more easily.
Where did you get it
Dentsply.
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