ArticleEuropean archives of paediatric dentistry : official journal of the European Academy of Paediatric Dentistry2026
Influence of early coronal preflaring on visual canal length and electronic apex locator accuracy in primary molars: an in vitro paired study.
Article in European archives of paediatric dentistry : official journal of the European Academy of Paediatric Dentistry, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
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Abstract
purposeTo evaluate the effect of early coronal preflaring on visual root canal length and the accuracy of two electronic apex locators, DentaPort-ZX and BOMEDENT, in primary molars.
methodsFifteen extracted mandibular first primary molars comprising 45 root canals were evaluated in a paired before/after design. Visual canal length was determined by advancing a size 10 K-file until its tip was visible at the apical foramen under 5 × magnification; three readings were obtained and averaged as the reference standard. Electronic lengths were then recorded using DentaPort-ZX and BOMEDENT. Coronal preflaring was performed with rotary NiTi PreRaCe files in the coronal and middle thirds, followed by repeated visual and electronic measurements using the same protocol. Accuracy was assessed as absolute error relative to the corresponding visual reference length and as the proportion of measurements within ± 0.5 and ± 1.0 mm. Paired before/after comparisons were performed using the Wilcoxon signed-rank test and exact McNemar test. A tooth-level sensitivity analysis was additionally performed to assess the potential influence of within-tooth clustering.
resultsVisual canal length decreased significantly after preflaring (P = 0.008); 8 of 45 canals (17.8%) became shorter. For both apex locators, the primary EAL accuracy outcome, absolute error, did not change significantly after preflaring. For DentaPort-ZX, absolute error showed no significant change (P = 0.065), although a secondary categorical analysis showed an increase in measurements within ± 0.5 mm from 60.0 to 80.0% (P = 0.022). For BOMEDENT, neither absolute error nor categorical accuracy at the ± 0.5 or ± 1.0 mm thresholds changed significantly after preflaring.
conclusionEarly coronal preflaring significantly reduced visual canal length in 17.8% of the canals. However, preflaring did not significantly change the primary EAL accuracy outcome, absolute error, for either apex locator. The observed improvement in DentaPort-ZX measurements within ± 0.5 mm should be interpreted as a secondary categorical finding.
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