Carbon Hill, IL
( home town visiting the folks )...July 19, 1994
Last Edited on Thursday, January 15, 1998
If you have not yet taken the Automated Endo course it might profit you to do so at your earliest opportunity.
There are a lot of technique tips in it that involve hands on learning.
There are some things that are best learned by doing.
One of those is how to pre-curve files and how to pre-curve 30 gauge needles to get into curved canals.
Remember, the tip of a file is tapered, the canal is tapered, and the end of a needle is blunt.
The outside diameter of a 30 gauge needle is exactly 0.29 mm.
The inside diameter of a canal prepared with a #30 Fine Cut File is at least 0.30mm and therefore the needle should fit.
And it does...IF...the canal is not curved.
If the canal is curved and the tip of the needle is straight, the blunt end of the needle will gouge in and keep the needle from sliding in.
To curve a needle PROPERLY you must lay it on a hard surface such as a formica counter top, put a hemostat against it, hold it down and pull up on the needle.
It is very important that the very tip of the needle be curved.
This is the part that either guides it around the curve or gouges into the wall of the canal.
When you insert the needle into the canal, the curve of the file must align with the curve of the canal.
If it does not, you will have to rotate the tip of the needle.
If you have already bent the needle at right angles to enter a molar, then rotating the tip involves rotating the whole syringe in an arc.
If you have not pre-bent the needle, you can simply rotate the syringe, holding the needle between thumb and forefinger or holding it lightly with a hemostat.
The needle then becomes a flexible shaft and the tip can thus align with the curve of the canal.
I takes a little practice but it works.
E-mail your comments to drjack@BetterEndo.com