Association between tooth and type of instrument fractured during root canal treatment

Abstract

Instrument fracture is a common unfortunate event that takes place during the root canal treatment. A good knowledge about the different instruments that can fracture, causes of fracture, predilection of teeth towards fracture of instruments, etc will help the clinician to be more alert. It will also help clinicians gain confidence towards methods of retrieval of these instruments. The aim of this study was to analyse the association between the tooth and the type of instrument separated during root canal treatment. The study was based on an online setting. Data was collected retrospectively. Patient reports of 86000 patients that reported to the institution between June 2019 and March 2020 were reviewed. Data of instrument retrievals done from December 2019 to March 2020 was collected. Excel sheet tabulations were made involving tooth number, type of instrument fractured and method of retrieval. Descriptive statistics was done on SPSS software. Association between the tooth and type of instrument was analyzed with Chi Square test. No statistical significant difference was seen between the tooth and type of instrument fractured. (p>0.05). The tooth type does not influence the type of instrument fractured significantly.