Analysis of the instrumentation time and cleaning between manual and rotary techniques in deciduous molars

Introduction: The rotary instrumentation provides shorter instrumentation time with greater comfort for the patient but few studies have been conducted on primary teeth. Objective: this study compared the cleaning ability and instrumentation time between manual and rotary techniques in deciduous molars. Material and methods: a total of 15 molars were selected, submitted to coronal opening and root canal filled with India ink. After 48 hours, the teeth were divided into three groups: G1 – manual instrumentation with K files, G2 – rotary system Endowave, and G3 – rotary system ProTaper. After instrumentation, the teeth were sectioned and three blinded examiners evaluated the root canal cleaning. The mode of scores of examiners was analyzed by the Kruskal-Wallis test. The instrumentation time was recorded and the results were statistically analyzed by ANOVA. Results: the ProTaper system presented shorter instrumentation time compared to manual instrumentation (p = 0.0339). Endowave system did not present statistically significant difference in the instrumentation time compared to the other groups. There were no significant differences between groups concerning the ability of root canal cleaning (p = 0.6188). Conclusion: ProTaper system revealed shorter treatment time and similar cleaning ability compared to the other techniques, thus being indicated for deciduous teeth.