Comparing the Influence of Conventional and Rotary Instrumentation Techniques on the Behavior of the Children: A Randomized Clinical Trial

BACKGROUND: Pulpectomy has gained popularity in the pediatric dental practice for preserving the primary teeth in its position until exfoliation. There has been a paradigm shift from using manual instrumentation to rotary instrumentation for canal preparation in primary teeth. While studies show that there is a reduction in the instrumentation time with the use of rotary instruments which in turn influences the behavior of the child, its direct effect on the behavior of the children has not been evaluated. AIM: To compare the behavior of the children during manual and rotary instrumentation for pulpectomy in the primary molars. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A single-blinded randomized clinical trial was conducted in 88 children in any one of the mandibular primary molars indicated for pulpectomy. The canal preparation was done using manual K files and rotary ProTaper (44 children in each group). The influence of these instrumentation techniques on the children was assessed with three different scales- Frankl Behavior Rating Scale; Venham Interval Rating Scale; Wong Baker FACES Pain Scale for evaluating the behavior, anxiety, and the pain experienced by the children, respectively during canal preparation. RESULTS: A total of 88 participants, comprising 50 females and 38 males, participated in the study. An equal distribution of the participants with respect to age (p = 0.064), gender (p = 0.389), and teeth (p = 0.877) was observed between the groups. More cooperative behavior (p < 0.001); lesser anxiety levels (p < 0.001); lower intensity of pain (p < 0.001) were recorded in the children instrumented using Rotary files. CONCLUSION: The present study concludes that it is preferable to use rotary instrumentation for primary canal preparation in pediatric practice as it has a more positive influence on the behavior of the children, which eventually determines the success of the treatment. CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE: With rise in the use of rotary files for pulpectomy in primary teeth, the present paper demonstrates the influence of rotary instrumentation technique for canal preparation during pulpectomy on the behavior of the children in a dental chair. This paper throws light for the pedodontists to effectively perform pulpectomy in children with ease without leaving a psychological impact on the children. HOW TO CITE THIS ARTICLE: Govindaraju L, Subramanian EMG, Jeevanandan G. Comparing the Influence of Conventional and Rotary Instrumentation Techniques on the Behavior of the Children: A Randomized Clinical Trial. Int J Clin Pediatr Dent 2021;14(S-2):S179–S185.