June 29, 1994...Grand Island, NE
Latest Update Saturday, January 17, 1998
Note: Very soon the STS will be replaced with the Fine Cut Endo Handpiece which although it owes its lineage to the STS is a stainless steel handpiece that fits on any standard straight handpiece.
It cuts as fast as the STS as long as the handpiece it is on can do 17000 RPM.
If you attach it to a slower handpiece it will cut correspondingly slower.
We recommand either a 16000 rpm handpiece like the Midwest Shorty or the MTI 19000 RPM slow speed.
History was made today.
For the first time in history a root canal was done with a toothbrush.
No, not really.
It was done with an electric toothbrush, modified by adding a Fine Cut Sonic adapter to it in place of the toothbrush.
The system is now called "Successor To Sonics" or "STS" for short.
For the record, it was done by Dr. Doug Camplin.
Doug is one of those people who gets really enthused about new techniques and when I showed him the modified toothbrush, he wouldn't let me get out without doing a root canal prep with it.
It was a real test too.
The patient was a 70+ year old male.
The tooth was a previously crowned lower right second molar.
Not an easy case.
Access was difficult and canals were pretty well on their way to 'dentin pipehood'.
Doug told me that he had never prepared this difficult canal so easily.
Actual time per canal about two minutes, and this was his first.
Should get better with practice.
He both probed and filed with the STS system.
Here's a few hints that we can pass on to you for using the STS system with Fine Cut Files.
This is especially those of you who have taken the course in recent years.
First, circumferentially file the orifice as far as you can go with a number 30 Fine-Cut file in the STS system. This will usually get you to within a few millimeters of the apex and clear the way for probing to the apex with hand files.
Second, after apical length has been determined, use a #20 in the STS and circumferentially file to a point 3 mm short of the apex.
Third, follow this with sizes 25 and a 30 to the 3mm point.
From that point on the prep is our standard prep.
If the canal is curved, you can precurve the Fine-Cut Files as you might have done with the sonic and ultrasonic systems.
But because the up and down motion is done for you and is a controlled 1mm movement, you just have to bear against the sides of the canal remembering that the STS system cuts at least 50 times faster than you previously did, so cut the time down drastically.
Circumferentially filing with the STS System is simplicity itself. Insert the file to depth, bear lightly against the circumference of the canal, letting the up and down motion of the STS System scrub the walls of the canal for you. Remember, each second at a point on the circumference results in 250 up and down strokes.
As you move around to the other points on the circumference, periodically move the file slowly up and down about 5-10 mm to create a pumping action with the file, to assist in washed field.
With the file going in and out so rapidly you will cut very fast and create clouds of dentin slurry.
Probing with the STS System is also easy but there are a few gotchas if you are not careful.
Normally probing with Fine-Cut Files is push, get the file stuck, pull it out.
The inward stroke is just enough to drive the conical file into a conical canal.
Since the STS System moves the file inward, it does that for you.
If you are not careful and are in a curved canal it will force the file around the curve with each in stroke and bind.
Your tendency is to let it go because it comes out hard.
Keep control of the handpiece and pull out occasionally, freeing the file.
If it get stuck too hard, you are probably going around a curve.
E-mail your comments to drjack@BetterEndo.com