A Critical Evaluation of the Single-Use Policy of Endodontic Instruments

Endodontic treatments involve accessing a sterile or non-sterile pulp chamber and root canal content, following an inflammation of the pulp or bacterial colonization of the pulp chamber and root canals, as a septic complication of decay. For this purpose, stainless steel instruments were developed in the last century and Ni-Ti files more recently, serving for different purposes during different procedures and manoeuvres having the unique goal to clean and seal the root canal respecting the biologic and mechanical principles stated by Schilder [1]. Newer (Ni-Ti) files not only increased the speed of the treatment but also managed to assure a proper shape of the canal preparation and subsequently, of the canal filling. Being so useful, reliable, resistant, and ultimately, not cheap, the initially single-use instruments got to be reused by a wide number of practitioners for at least 5 times, with great success, being assured by the manufacturers that both files and the tooth are safe. There are reports of file reuse on 12 [2] or 24 [3] extracted roots having medium curvature.