ANALYSIS OF FORCES DEVELOPED DURING OBTURATIONS - WEDGING EFFECT - PART I

The aim of this study was to define the ''wedging effect'' created by the intracanal forces developed during obturations and to measure it u sing a force analyzer device, In endodontics, the wedging effect is th e result of, for example, a plugger pushing gutta-percha into a canal: the plugger functions much as the rod of a hydraulic jack and the ver tical force applied by this rod induces in the cylinder (i.e. the cana l) a hydrostatic pressure that is relatively equal in all directions, It is these forces resulting from the hydrostatic pressure that have b een labeled the wedging effect, The original device, the Endographe, h ad a monobloc cupule for measuring the external vertical and horizonta l forces developed by a practitioner, but it was unable to measure the intracanal forces, With a new cupule composed of two independent part s joined under pressure, the wedging effect was recorded and analyzed, Two obturation methods, warm vertical compaction and lateral condensa tion, were performed by endodontists. The forces were depicted by Endo grammes as a function of time, For all of the forces developed during the two techniques, the mean values showed a nonsignificant difference between the different practitioners, The use of graphs provides a new approach to the analysis of intracanal forces as they develop our tim e and permits the comparison of different obturation techniques.