TAVARES, Warley Luciano Fonseca et al. Stainless steel manual and NiTi rotary instruments fracture rate in a post-graduate clinic in Endodontics. Arq. Odontol. []. 2015, 51, 3, pp. 152-157. ISSN 1516-0939.

Aim: This study aimed to perform a retrospective study and analyze the fracture rate of manual stainless steel and rotary NiTi files in endodontic treatments performed by students from a specialization course in Endodontics, correlating the fracture of the instruments to the phase of instrumentation. Methods: The records of patients treated in the endodontics specialization courses at Instituto de Estudos da Saúde (IES) in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, were analyzed from May 2010 to November 2012. Results: From the 501 analyzed records, in 18 cases fracture of instruments could be observed. From those, 10 (55.55%) were manual instruments and 8 (44.44%) were NiTi rotary instruments. From the total of manual fractured instruments, 7 occurred in the canal initial exploration phase. In only one stainless steel instrument was fracture observed in the canal shaping phase. Conclusion: Low fracture levels were observed for both types of instruments, which were influenced by the instrumentation phase of the canals The NiTi rotary instruments showed a higher level of fracture when compared to stainless steel manual instruments in the root canal shaping phase.

: Instruments.; Fracture.; Endodontics..