Abstract
The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of repeated autoclave sterilization on the cyclic fatigue resistance of heat-treated NiTi rotary endodontic instruments.
Three NiTi rotary endodontic instruments (EdgeFile X7, EFX7 0.30/0.4; Vortex Blue, VB 0.30/0.4; and TRUShape, TS 0.30/0.6) were selected. Each group (
= 24 each) was divided into 2 subgroups (
= 12 each): sterilized instruments and nonsterilized instruments. The sterilized instruments were subjected to 10 cycles of autoclave sterilization. Twelve instruments from each different subgroups were tested for cyclic fatigue resistance, and the number of cycles to failure (NCF) was calculated. Means and standard deviations were calculated for each group, and data were statistically analyzed using the SPSS program (
< 0.05).
Sterilized and nonsterilized EFX7 files showed the highest NCF compared with other file subgroups. Comparing the results between sterilized and nonsterilized instruments for each type of files, there was a statistically significant difference (
< 0.05) only between sterilized and nonsterilized EFX7 files (1198 versus 755 NCF). The other instruments did not show significant differences (
> 0.05) in the mean NCF as a result of sterilization cycles (VB, 606 versus 568 NCF; TS, 487 versus 442 NCF).
Repeated cycles of autoclave sterilization increased the NCF of the new heat-treated files, with EFX7 showing statistically significant superior results compared with other files tested.