Correlation between Temperature-dependent Fatigue Resistance and Differential Scanning Calorimetry Analysis for 2...

The aim of this study was to assess differences in cyclic fatigue (CF) life of contemporary heat-treated nickel-titanium rotary instruments at room and body temperatures and to document corresponding phase transformations.

Forty Hyflex EDM (H-EDM) files (Coltene, Cuyahoga Falls, OH [#25/.08, manufactured by electrical discharge machining]) and 40 TRUShape (TS) files (Dentsply Tulsa Dental Specialties, Tulsa, OK [#25/.06v, manufactured by grinding and shape setting]) were divided into 2 groups (n = 20) for CF resistance tests in a water bath either at room (22°C ± 0.5°C) or body temperature (37°C ± 0.5°C). Instruments were rotated in a simulated canal (angle = 60°, radius = 3 mm, and center of the curvature 5 mm from the tip) until fracture occurred. The motor was controlled by an electric circuit that was interrupted after instrument fracture. The mean half-life and beta and eta Weibull parameters were determined and compared. Two instruments of each brand were subjected to differential scanning calorimetry (DSC).

While TS instruments lasted significantly longer at room temperature (mean life = 234.7 seconds; 95% confidence interval [CI], 209-263.6) than at body temperature (mean life = 83.2 seconds; 95% CI, 76-91.1), temperature did not affect H-EDM behavior (room temperature mean life = 725.4 seconds; 95% CI, 658.8-798.8 and body temperature mean life = 717.9 seconds; 95% CI, 636.8-809.3). H-EDM instruments significantly outlasted TS instruments at both temperatures. At body temperature, TS was predominantly austenitic, whereas H-EDM was martensitic or in R-phase. TS was in a mixed austenitic/martensitic phase at 22°C, whereas H-EDM was in the same state as at 37°C.

H-EDM had a longer fatigue life than TS, which showed a marked decrease in fatigue life at body temperature; neither the life span nor the state of the microstructure in the DSC differed for H-EDM between room or body temperature.