Loss of retention remains a major mode of failure even for passive, nonmetal dowels luted by resin cements with a bonding agent. The exact nature and underlying causes of debonding have not been adequately investigated.

The cyclic fatigue resistance of four nickel-titanium endodontic instruments was compared. K3, ProFile and GT Series X rotary instruments were examined along with SafeSiders reciprocating instruments. 30/0.04 instruments at 25 mm length were compared. Cyclic fatigue testing was conducted by operating instruments in artificially constructed stainless steel canals with 30° and 45° angles of curvature and 5 mm and 7.5 mm radii of curvature. The time and cycles to failure were recorded for 192 samples. Statistical analysis was performed with three-way anova and the Student-Neuman-Keuls multiple comparisons testing. With a 5 min maximum running time, no SafeSiders samples were observed to separate. ProFile and GT Series X instruments were found to be significantly more resistant than K3 instruments (P < 0.001) for all experiment groups. There was no statistical difference between ProFile and GT Series X files (P < 0.582).

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