Effect of internal stress on cyclic fatigue failure in K3

Objectives: This study aimed to evaluate the relationship between the cyclic fatigue of a K3 file and internal stress intentionally induced until the activation of the autostop function of the torque-controlled motor. Materials and Methods: K3 (Sybron Endo) .04 and .06 taper, size 25, 30, 35, 40 and 45 were used in this study. To give the internal stress, the K3 files were put into the .02 taper Endo-Training-Bloc (Dentsply Maillefer) until the activation of the auto-stop function of the torque-controlled motor. The rotation speed was 300 rpm and torque value was 1.0 . K3 were grouped by the number of induced internal stress and randomly distributed to 4 experimental groups (n = 10, Stress 0 [control], Stress 1, Stress 2 and Stress 3). For measuring the cyclic fatigue failure, the K3 files were worked against a sloped glass block and time for file separation was recorded. Data was statistically analyzed Statistical analyses were performed using two-way ANOVA and Duncan post-hoc test at p