Objective: The goals of a root canal therapy cannot be met without good access to the canal, which may in turn lead to procedural errors. This in vitro study was done to evaluate and compare the shaping ability of WaveOne ® (DENTSPLY Maillefer, Ballaigues, Switzerland) and ProTaper NEXT ® (DENTSPLY Maillefer, Ballaigues, Switzerland) rotary nickel-titanium (NiTi) files systems in simulated S-shaped and L-shaped root canals respectively.
Materials and methods:Twenty simulated S-shaped and L-shaped root canals in resin blocks were randomly assigned into four groups according to the rotary system used (n = 40). The canals were prepared to a 25 tip size using WaveOne ® or ProTaper NEXT ® . Pre-and postoperative photos of each simulated canal were captured using a professional camera at standardized distance and position. The images were superimposed with the aid of Adobe Photoshop Elements 7.0 software. Ten lines at a distance of 1 mm each were selected from the superimposed canal images to measure central axis transportation and curvature straightening using a software program. The data recorded were analyzed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences version 18.0 data analysis software.
Results:The data analyzed showed that, in simulated S-shaped root canals, ProTaper NEXT ® preserved the best coronal curvature significantly (p < 0.05) compared with WaveOne ® , but both the file systems were able to straighten the curvature significantly. In simulated L-shaped root canals, ProTaper NEXT ® caused less central axis transportation than WaveOne ® at both curved and apical sections (p < 0.05) but produced more transportation at straight section. The canal curvature was well maintained with ProTaper NEXT ® rotary system.
Conclusion: Among the two rotary file systems evaluated,ProTaper NEXT ® demonstrated superior shaping ability compared with WaveOne ® at curved sections in both S-shaped and L-shaped canals.