A COMPARISON OF AMOUNTS OF APICALLY EXTRUDED DEBRIS USING HANDPIECE-DRIVEN NICKEL-TITANIUM INSTRUMENT SYSTEMS

One hundred single-rooted teeth were instrumented with Lightspeed, Pro file .04 Taper Series 29, and NT McXIM instruments according to the re commendations of the manufacturers, and Flex-R files using the balance d force technique, Groups were comparable with respect to average curv ature, canal length, and major and minor foramen size, A standard amou nt of irrigant was used for each tooth, Apically extruded debris and i rrigant were collected and weighed, Debris was desiccated before being weighed, There were no statistically significant differences among th e four groups with respect to total extruded debris, The amount of ext ruded debris was positively correlated with the amount of irrigant ext ruded, Factors such as canal length, curvature, and foramen size did n ot affect the amount of debris extruded.