Use of interdental brushes in the endodontic treatment of teeth with wider canals

Younger patients may require endodontic treatment for a variety of reasons including the consequences of caries, trauma and dental anomalies. In traumatic dental injuries, it is often the incisor teeth that are affected. These teeth can be challenging to root treat and restore because, amongst other things, they have large pulp chambers, thin radicular dentine and/or immature apices.

It has long been established that the majority of the bacteria in an infected root canal system reside in its coronal part. Thus removal of coronal bacteria and shaping of the canal orifice prior to instrumentation of the middle and apical part of the root canal system is a key principle of the crown-down technique.

The use of proprietary brushes to remove debris and inter-appointment medicaments is already documented in the literature.^1,2,3 The authors have found that interdental brushes (Figure 1) work similarly to scrub the internal aspect of the root canal system, remove pulpal remnants and aid disinfection of the coronal part of the root canal in conjunction with an appropriate irrigant.