Comparative study of the variability of 0.06 tapered rotary endodontic files to current taper standards

This study compared the taper variation among Profile, Guidance, and EndoSequence 0.06 tapered rotary files to current standards. Fifteen files of sizes 35, 40, and 45 from each manufacturer were evaluated for a total of 135 files. A digital image of the first 4 mm of each file was captured with light microscope at 22X, calibrated for 0.001-mm accuracy, and analyzed. The diameter of each file was measured at 1 and 4 mm, and the taper was calculated. Of the 3 file systems, 100% of the Profile files, 97.8% of the Guidance files, and 86.7% of the EndoSequence files fell within +/- 0.02 taper. All file systems demonstrated variability within their groups. A series of chi(2) analyses indicated that manufacturers tend to produce Guidance and Profile tapers slightly under the ideal 0.06 taper (P <.05). The tapers of EndoSequence files were just as likely to be over or under the advertised 0.06 taper (P >.05).