The effect of operational speed on the fracture of nickel-titanium rotary instruments

The purpose of this study was to compare the number of rotations to fracture of nickel-titanium (NiTi) rotary files operated at different speeds and different angles. We used 60 Profile NiTi rotary files, size 25 (30 each of 0.04 and 0.06 taper), operated at speeds of 350 or 600 rpm at angles of 25, 28, and 33.5 degrees. The time to fracture and number of rotations to fracture were recorded and calculated. A significant (p < 0.001) difference was found in the number of rotations to fracture according to taper and angle. Files of 0.06 taper fractured more readily than files of 0.04 taper. Increasing the angle at which the file was rotated decreased the number of rotations to fracture for both tapers; 0.04-taper files were more affected by an increase in the angle than the 0.06-taper files. However, the number of rotations to fracture was not related to the speed at which the files were operated.