CLINICAL ARTICLESMeasurement of the Distance Between the Minor Foramen and the Anatomic Apex by Digital and Conventional Radiography
Section snippets
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Thirty permanent single-canal teeth with a mature root apex were used in this study. After access preparation, a K-file (Dentsply, Tulsa, OK) between sizes #15 and #35 was inserted into the canal until the tip of the file was just seen at the minor foramen under ×40 stereomicroscope (Olympus SZ4045, Olympus American Inc., Melville, NY). The selection of file size depended on the size of the canal. The file was fixed in the canal by filling the access preparation with Tetric Flow composite
RESULTS
The mean distances between file tip and radiographic apex are shown in Table 1. There was a statistically significant difference between the measurements from digital and conventional radiographs (t test, p < 0.05). The distance measured on digital radiographs was 0.1 mm longer than the distance on conventional radiographs.
DISCUSSION
This study used radiographs to determine the distance between the minor foramen and the anatomical apex. The file tip, which was inserted into the canal and viewed at the minor foramen, served as a reference point. The distance between the file tip and the center of the radiographic apex was measured on radiographs. The average distance was ∼0.5 mm from conventional radiograph measurements and ∼0.6 mm from the digital radiograph measurements. These values are similar to previous studies that
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