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Mechanisms of Instrument Failure

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Management of Fractured Endodontic Instruments

Abstract

The current knowledge of the failure mechanisms of endodontic files during root canal instrumentation is presented. An understanding of these mechanisms can provide substantial information for the development of appropriate guidelines to clinicians regarding safer use and, on the other hand, to the manufacturers for the development of new instruments less vulnerable to intracanal fracture. The chapter presents the different failure mechanisms of stainless steel (SS) and nickel titanium (NiTi) files based mostly on information extrapolated from the clinical use of endodontic files (i.e. failure rate over number of uses, retrieval analysis with macroscopic examination and fractographic analysis) rather than on experimental testing under controlled laboratory conditions. The reasons affecting the fracture mechanisms have been extensively discussed in a previous chapter and thus will not be included in the analysis of failure mechanism.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biomaterials, School of Dentistry, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Thivon 2 Goudi, 11527, Athens, Greece

    Spiros Zinelis B. Eng, Ph.D.

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  1. Spiros Zinelis B. Eng, Ph.D.
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Correspondence to Spiros Zinelis B. Eng, Ph.D. .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Endodontics, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, School of Dentistry, Thessaloniki, Greece

    Theodor Lambrianidis

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Zinelis, S. (2018). Mechanisms of Instrument Failure. In: Lambrianidis, T. (eds) Management of Fractured Endodontic Instruments. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-60651-4_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-60651-4_3

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-60650-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-60651-4

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