Assessment of apical transportation caused by nickel–titanium rotary systems with full rotation and reciprocating movements using extracted teeth and resin blocks with simulated root canals: A comparative study

Abstract

Objectives: We compared apical transportation in the WaveOne and ProTaper Next systems, which are rotary nickel–titanium systems with reciprocating and continuous rotation movements, respectively, using manual measurements obtained from resin blocks with simulated root canals and double digital radiographs of extracted teeth.

Materials and Methods: We used 30 resin blocks with simulated root canals and 30 extracted teeth for this study. The same endodontist performed root canal shaping using the WaveOne or ProTaper Next system. We assessed apical transportation by measuring the amounts (in mm) of material lost 1 mm from the apical foramen in the resin blocks and by using double digital radiography for the extracted teeth. Significant differences between groups were assessed using t‑tests. P < 0.05 was considered statistically significant.

Results: The amount of apical transportation differed significantly between the two systems when resin blocks were used for assessment (P < 0.05), but there were no significant differences when extracted teeth were used (P < 0.05).

Conclusions: In the current study, there was no significant difference in apical transportation between natural teeth prepared using WaveOne and those prepared using ProTaper Next. However, significant differences were observed between the two systems with resin blocks. These findings indicate that the use of resin blocks is not an accurate method for apical transportation evaluation.

Keywords: Apical canal transportation, digital radiograph, extracted teeth, nickel–titanium, rotary systems, simulated canal