Avaliação do uso do localizador apical eletrônico e análise comportamental em pacientes infantis.

Abstract

The endodontic treatment in primary teeth resulting from carious or traumatic injuries with pulp involvement is often necessary in pediatric dentistry. However, this technique may be hampered by the internal anatomical characteristics of this dentition and the shape, dimension and position of the root apex, always altered by physiological rhizolysis. The use of radiography is considered as the main tool for endodontic treatment. However, the accuracy in determining the working length is hampered by the anatomical variations of the deciduous elements, overlaps and errors of technique and projection. These factors stimulated the development of the electronic apical locators that measure the root canal length, being able to locate the position of the apical constriction with greater precision. Therefore, the purpose of the present study was to compare in vivo the measures of working length in deciduous teeth and to concomitantly evaluate the behavior of the patient through the Modified Frankl Behavioral Scale during the use of the electronic apical locator (Joypex 5 - Denjoy ®, China) and conventional radiography.The sample consisted of 30 ducts from primary molars of patients attending the Clinical School of Dentistry of the Federal University of Campina Grande (UFCG), who were under treatment in the department of Pediatric Dentistry II. After the access preparation, the conduits were irrigated with 2.5% sodium hypochlorite and sterile saline solution. The ducts were submitted to the two methods of measuring root canal length (electronic and radiographic), which were compared and measured in efficacy. The samples were characterized in the "Acceptable", "Short" and "Long" groups depending on the evaluation standards. The modified Frankl Behavior Scale was applied to evaluate the behavior of the patients during the two techniques used in the research. The results were analyzed through a descriptive, univariate analysis, which included the use of frequency distributions for the variables and in the bivariate analysis Pearson and Student's t correlation was used, with a confidence interval of 95% (p <0.05 ). There was no statistically significant difference between the measurements obtained by the evaluated methods (p = 0.45). Pearson's correlation coefficient was used to evaluate the relationship between the electronic measure and the radiographic measure, which showed a strong correlation (r = +0.86; p = <0.001) between the groups. The positive behavior was 80% during LAE measurement, whereas during the radiographic method only 50%. The electronic apical locator in primary teeth odontometry is safe to determine working length, thus reducing exposure to ionizing radiation and negative behavior caused by the radiographic method during endodontic treatment.