Background: The success of pulpectomy depends on complete eradication of microbial load by cleaning and shaping the primary root canals that is difficult to achieve because of anatomical intricacy of primary pulp dentin complex. Numerous instruments were tried, however, they proved to be inadequate. Selfadjusting file (SAF) is a newer file system that facilitates less dentin removal with maximal cleansing of root canals.
Aim: To evaluate and compare the in vitro root canal cleaning efficacy with SAF, Protaper Universal, and Hand K-files in primary teeth.
Materials and methods: Sixty extracted primary anterior teeth were randomly divided into three groups by lottery method. Access cavity was prepared, the canals were enlarged up to 20 K file, and an Indian ink was injected into each canal. Then the Group I (n = 20) was treated with SAF, Group II (n = 20) with Rotary Protaper Universal and Group III (n = 20) with Hand K-files and the root canal cleaning efficacy was evaluated based on the amount of Indian ink remaining in the canal walls under stereomicroscopy. Data were analyzed using Kruskal-Wallis one way ANOVA test and post hoc Tuckey test for intragroup and intergroup comparison, respectively.
Results: A statistically highly significant difference was observed with SAF (mean = 1.5), Protaper (mean = 2.5), and Hand K-files (mean = 2.9). However, there was no significant difference in root canal cleaning efficacy with Protaper Universal and Hand K-files.
Conclusion: The SAFs had shown superior cleaning efficacy compared with rotary Protaper Universal and manual K files.
Keywords: Manual K files; Protaper rotary files; selfadjusting files; stereomicroscope.