Cleanliness, Confirmed

Despite widespread advancements in endodontic materials and instruments, the core steps of root canal treatment have remained largely consistent since gutta-percha was first introduced: Canals are accessed, measured, shaped, and disinfected before being obturated. But woven into that protocol is the need to ensure canal cleanliness, which can be a challenge given that biological debris can’t always be seen.

Filling the Need for Objectivity

“In the past, we’ve relied upon indirect measures to establish how clean a canal is,” shared Ryan M. Walsh, DDS, MS. “But the Endocator gives us an objective chairside measurement.

"Testing is both simple and efficient with the Endocator, which takes the guesswork out of canal cleanliness by objectively using bioluminescence technology to detect residual contamination that’s invisible to both microscopes and radiographs. Because low levels of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) can signal biological debris, Endocator works by detecting trace amounts of ATP inside the root canal system, quickly providing an adjunctive canal cleanliness score."

All of that happens in less than 10 seconds, which is less time than it takes to set up an x-ray," Dr. Walsh said. "If it’s coming back with a very low score, then we know we've done our job irrigating and it’s as clean as we can get before sealing. But if we’re getting a high number, it means there’s still some debris left in the canal, and we then need to change our irrigation protocol.”

Obtaining results with the cordless and compact Endocator is fast and easy. Simply rinse the root canal with sterile water, aspirate the water, and then inject the sample into the specially formulated Endocator Test Swab. Place the swab into the device, where an Endoscore from 0 to 100 will be displayed in just 10 seconds.

All-Around Confidence Booster

“When patients know we’re able to measure how clean their canals are before we seal them, it’s going to increase their confidence in our root canal treatment," said Dr. Walsh, who owns Advanced Endodontics of Texas in Keller, TX. "It also shows that we want to make our treatments more predictable and care deeply about treatment success."

Dr. Walsh has had cases in which the results given by the Endocator indicated there was more biological debris present than he was initially expecting.

“The score would tell me there may be additional canals or possibly abscess drainage near the root tips," he explained. "It's always better to find that out before you seal rather than months or years down the road. If we can improve our treatment with a test that takes just 10 seconds, I think we’re well on our way to serving our patients to the best of our abilities.”