Although NiTi files have continued to develop, it is still difficult to prepare S-shaped root canals. The aim of this study was to compare the shaping ability of PTG, WOG, and TRN in simulated S-shaped canals. As a result of the experiment, TRN showed significantly less transportation than the other groups at the 3 mm level from the apical curvature and 5- and 6-mm levels from the coronal curvature (p < 0.05). Even though it was not significant at 1, 4, and 7 mm, TRN had a lesser tendency to cause transportation than that seen in other groups. TRN also removed the least resin in the apical and coronal curvature sections (p < 0.05).
To compare the shaping ability of NiTi files, resin blocks were used instead of the extracted human teeth in this study. Simulated canals in resin blocks provide standardized conditions for study and allow for direct comparison of pre- and post-instrumentation images. On the other hand, in human teeth, regular S-shaped root canals cannot be obtained. Although resin and tooth differ in their physical properties(16), numerous studies have used S-shaped simulated canals to compare the shaping ability of NiTi file systems(14, 17). Khalilak et al. also reported that the difference in apical transportation between extracted teeth and high-hardness resin blocks was similar(18).
In all file systems, apical preparation size 25 was selected and a similar size of 26 was selected for TRN. In fact, the larger the apical preparation size, the more effective it is for debris removal and disinfection in the root canal(19). However, in a previous study, Akhlaghi et al. reported that the ability of the 25 apical size to reduce bacteria was not significantly different from that of the other groups with greater apical sizes(20). Furthermore, the more the apical size increases, the flexibility of the file decreases, so the risk of canal transportation also increases(21).
TRN, the newly developed file system, is manufactured using a slim NiTi wire with a 0.8 mm maximum flute diameter and an off-centered parallelogram cross-sectional design, in addition to a special heat treatment. TRN exhibits higher flexibility and superior canal-centering ability while preserving tooth structure(11). Recently, there have been several studies on the fatigue resistance of TRN. Riyahi et al. reported that TRN had greater cyclic fatigue resistance than ProTaper NEXT and Twisted files (15). Elnaghy et al. also reported that TRN was more resistant to cyclic fatigue than the Vortex Blue and Race instruments in single and double curvature canals(12). These findings, related to the enhanced fatigue resistance, could be attributed to the special heat treatment of the alloy and the design of the instruments. Heat treatment changes the transformation behavior of the alloy and thus increases the flexibility of NiTi endodontic instruments(22). An off-centered parallelogram cross-sectional design and thin NiTi wire might have resulted in increasing cyclic fatigue resistance(11, 12, 23).
According to the experimental results, in the TRN group, significant deviations occurred only in the coronal regions at 6, 7, 8, and 9 mm (p < 0.05). On the other hand, the other groups showed significant deviations in the rest of the range except for 1 and 9 mm (p < 0.05). In addition, when comparing the degree of transportation of the three groups, the TRN caused less transportation than that seen in the other groups and removed the least resin in the apical and coronal curvature. In other words, it can be said that the TRN had the best ability to maintain the center of canals in the double curvature area.
The fact that the least amount of resin was removed in the TRN group might be related to a small and regressive taper and slim NiTi wire design. In the present study, the apical taper of PTG, WOG, and TRN was 0.08, 0.07, and 0.04, respectively. A significantly larger amount of resin was removed by PTG, compared to WOG, in the coronal curvature, and slightly higher in the apical curvature area. In addition, the PTG group showed more transportation than the other groups in the apical curvature (p < 0.05). This is consistent with a previous study showing that taper is a contributing factor in determining shaping ability(17, 24). The greater the taper in the apical area, the lesser the flexibility and higher the transportation degree, compared to other files of the same size(25).
In this study, PTG was used in continuous sequence with S1, S2, F1, and F2 according to the manufacturer’s recommendations. A previous study showed similar anatomical outcomes between shaping a canal with ProTaper F2 using the single-file reciprocating technique and the conventional ProTaper full-sequence rotary approach(26). However, the single-file F2 ProTaper technique displayed significantly lower debridement ability in oval-shaped canals compared with the conventional ProTaper full sequence(27). In studies comparing the shaping ability of PTG with other single file systems, PTG has been used in the recommended sequence(28, 29).
The preparation time is dependent on the number of instruments used, the operator experience, and on the technique used. In the present study, the preparation time included the time taken for active instrumentation, changing instruments, cleaning the flutes of instruments, and irrigation(29). The TRN was the fastest file followed by WOG and PTG. In general, using a single file system takes less time than using several sequential rotary files. In addition, two single file systems, the WOG and TRN, showed significant differences, highlighting the better shaping efficiency of TRN. However, single file systems could prepare the canals relatively fast, so this difference might not be important in clinical situations(24).