A Comparative Overview of Working Length Determination with Radiographs and Two Electronic Apex Locators | Chapter 21 | Issues and Developments in Medicine and Medical Research Vol. 7

 The purpose of this study was to compare the accuracy of the Root ZX and Elements-Diagnostic electronic apex locators to radiographs when it came to detecting the canal terminus or minor foramen.

The canal terminus of 482 canals in 160 maxillary and mandibular teeth was found in vivo using locators and radiography. The exact position of the minor foramen was determined visually and with magnification after extraction. To evaluate differences between the groups, a paired samples t test, an X2 test, and a repeated measure ANOVA were performed at the 0.05 level of significance.

The Root ZX successfully found the minor foramen in anterior and premolar teeth 68 percent of the time, and 58 percent of the time in molar teeth. In anterior and premolar teeth, the Elements-Diagnostic successfully detected the minor foramen 58 percent of the time, and 49 percent of the time in molar teeth. Radiographs properly identified the minor foramen 20% of the time in anterior and premolar teeth, and 11% of the time in molar teeth. The two locators had no statistically significant differences, however there was a significant difference between them and radiography. The apex locators were within 0.5 mm of the minor foramen 100% of the time for all teeth, whereas the radiographs were only within this range 15% of the time.

This distinction was statistically significant (p=0.05).

Conclusion: Utilizing the two apex locators to measure the location of the minor foramen was more accurate than using radiography, and it reduced the danger of instrumenting and filling beyond the apical foramen.


Author(S) Details

Jorge Paredes Vieyra
Endodontics and Pediatric Dentistry School of Dentistry, Universidad Autónoma de Baja California, Campus Tijuana, Tijuana, Baja California, México.

Julieta Acosta Guardado
Endodontics and Pediatric Dentistry School of Dentistry, Universidad Autónoma de Baja California, Campus Tijuana, Tijuana, Baja California, México.

Amairani Denisse Sánchez González
Endodontics and Pediatric Dentistry School of Dentistry, Universidad Autónoma de Baja California, Campus Tijuana, Tijuana, Baja California, México.

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