ROOT CANAL THERAPIES
Our teeth are meant to last a lifetime. Sometimes, however, damage occurs to a tooth (often from a deep cavity ors an injury that causes a tooth to crack) and the inside of the tooth becomes infected.
This infection damages the pulp of the tooth - the network of blood vessels and nerves inside.
Left untreated, the damaged pulp can cause infection that will damage the bone around the tooth and cause swelling and pain. If the damaged tooth becomes infected, your dentist, or a dental specialist called an Endodontic, may have to perform an endodontic treatment (often called Root Canal Therapy) to save it.
Endodontic treatment involves opening the tooth, removing the damaged pulp, cleaning, shaping, filling and sealing the tooth. Depending upon how much infection there is in the injured tooth, your may be put on medicine before your dentist or Endodontist can begin to work.
The ProTaper system is the alternative to all other file systems in which each file has a fixed taper. Each ProTaper file has a variable changing taper over the length of its cutting blades. Specifically, the ProTaper shaping files have small-sized tips, which act as guides to follow the path of the canal previously secured with hand files. Progressively tapered shaping files work away from their apical extents and, importantly, selectively cut dentin toward their larger, stronger and more active blades.
In fact, this variably tapered concept and method of use resulted from the Schilder technique, in which precurved reamers were sequentially selected, rotated in an envelope of motion and cut dentin on the withdrawal stroke to create a predictably tapered shape. ProTaper shaping files have a cross-section similar to that of reamers and, as such, are allowed to passively "float" into the canal and "follow" the glide path.
To optimize safety and efficiency, shaping files are used like a brush to laterally and selectively cut dentin on the outstroke. A brushing action creates lateral space, which will facilitate moving the shaping file's larger and more active blades safely and progressively deeper into the canal. It is remarkable to note that, in this method of use, the files are essentially loose during the majority of their work within a canal. In the ProTaper concept, more than the instrument design, the motion with which the file is used, creates the shape.
ProTaper Universal is a global endodontic concept involving all steps of the root canal treatment from access to obturation and retreatment. Specific instruments have been designed to simplify and make each procedure easier. The new line is compounded of an Endo access kit, ProFinders (scouting files), ProTaper paper points, Protaper Gutta Percha points, ProTaper obturators and a retreatment kit. The safety of the ProTaper rotary files has been improved with the elimination of the transition angle between the tip and the first cutting flute, and a modified cross-section for F3 making this file much more flexible. The new kit features two additional finishing files, F4 with a 0.40 tip diameter and F5 with a 0.50 tip diameter to address larger canals and for clinicians who believe in larger apical sizes. The ProTaper files are available for hand use and in 31 mm length.
