In vitro evaluation of the accuracy of two electronic apex locators

This study involves evaluating the accuracy of two electronic apex locators (EALs), Raypex and Neosono Co-pilot. Ten single-root human anterior teeth were used for the study. The crown was sectioned to gain access to the root canal. For each tooth, the reference (or control) length, corresponding to the actual length, was determined, after which all the teeth were measured independently. The results obtained with each EAL were in turn compared with the corresponding control length. The statistical analysis of the results showed that EAL reliability in detecting the apex varies from 80 to 85% for Neosono systems and 85 to 90% for the Raypex systems. Combined with a high observer concordance, these results suggest that electronic root canal measurement can be an objective and acceptably reproducible technique.