Journal of Dental Medicine

Statement of Problem: Root canal cleaning and elimination of the source of infection are the most important basis and the main requirements for successful root treatment since the main cause of failure in root treatment is the permeation of bacteria or their products into the periapical tissues. Nowadays, the newly designed and prcsented instruments for canal instrumentation can improve root treatment.

Purpose: The aim of this study was to compare the decrease in the number of intracanal Enterococcus-faecalis (Ef) among three mechanical instrumentation methods: manual (K-type) and rotary (Race, Profile).

Materials and Methods: In this experimental study, 30 single rooted teeth were selected. Three cases were considered as negative and three cases as posetive controls and 24 remainder cases were divided into three experimental groups. All root canals were inoculated by Ef and samples were taken from all canals to prepare microbial cultures. The three instrumentation procedures were: - Crown- down technique with K-type manual system file - Crown- down technique with Profile rotary system - Crown- down technique wiht Race rotary system After instrumentation, microbial cultures were taken from root canals and the reduction rate of bacteria were evaluated and compared using one way ANOVA test with P<0.05 as the limit of significance.

Results: There was no significant difference among the three instrumentation procedures regarding bacterial elimination.

Conclusion: According to the finding of this study, K-type manual file, Profile and Race rotary systems, all can be used in canal instrumentaion. However, since manual files are more accessible and require less equipment compared with rotary systems, and since the ability of all of these methods is identical regarding bacterial elimination, manual files can be used in straight canal instead of rotary systems.