Clinical ResearchAn Ex Vivo Study of Root Canal System Configuration and Morphology of 115 Maxillary First Premolars
Section snippets
Materials and Methods
One hundred fifteen extracted human permanent Mx1Ps were collected for reasons not concerning this investigation from dentists and dental clinics from Berlin and Mainz, Germany, and Bern, Switzerland, and kept in a 3% chloramine solution. The Mx1Ps were cleaned from calculus or tissue remnants by means of manual and ultrasonic scalers. Only Mx1Ps that could be clearly identified as Mx1Ps8 were considered in this study; otherwise, they were discarded. Specimens with endodontic treatments,
Results
The results showed that of 115 Mx1Ps, 30 (26.1%), 81 (70%), and 4 (3.5%) were 1, 2, and 3 rooted, respectively. The described RCCs of the buccal and palatal roots of 2-rooted Mx1Ps as well as those with only 1 and 3 roots are shown in Table 1. Single-rooted Mx1Ps had mostly a 2-2-2/2 (30.0%) RCC; another 11 different RCCs were observed in single-rooted Mx1Ps ranging from 3.3%–13.3%. The most frequently observed RCC in 2-rooted Mx1Ps in the buccal root was 1-1-1/1 (56.87%); another 7 different
Discussion
The aim of this study was to investigate the root canal system morphology of Mx1Ps on a sizable number of specimens by means of micro-CT imaging, allowing a solid statistical evaluation of the results. Different findings of the internal morphology of Mx1Ps have been reported with different in vivo and ex vivo methodologies2. Yet, regarding the internal tooth morphology, 3D ex vivo investigations are considered to provide more detailed information when compared with in vivo methods, such as
Conclusions
The following conclusions can be drawn:
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The most frequently encountered RCCs in single-rooted maxillary first premolars are 2-2-2/2 (30.0%), 1-2-2/2 (13.3%), 1-2-1/2, and 2-2-1/2 (10.0%).
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The most frequently encountered RCCs in 2-rooted maxillary first premolars are 1-1-1/1 (56.8%), 1-1-1/2 (29.6%), and 1-1-2/2 (8.6%) in the buccal root and 1-1-1/1 (92.6%) and 1-1-1/2 (6.2%) in the palatal root.
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Three-rooted maxillary first premolars always showed a 1-1-1/1 root canal configuration (in each root).
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Acknowledgments
The authors thank Dr Beat Suter, Prof Dr Erik Schulte (Head of the Institute of Functional and Clinical Anatomy, University Medical Center of the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz), Nane Boemke (Head of the Cadaver Department and Organization of Clinical Anatomy, Institute for Anatomy, University of Bern), and Michael Stiebritz (Dental Research Center, Swiss Institute for Translational and Entrepreneurial Medicine, Bern, Switzerland).
Supported by a grant from the Swiss Society for
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