Drying your endo canals – Vacuum it out!

Do you find yourself going through piles and piles of paper points trying to dry your endodontic canals? I definitely did! I’d give my poor dental assistant a workout, hurriedly fishing out multiple paper points one at a time.

In my first few weeks of practice, I spent a lot of my time shadowing the other dentists because my books were still building up. While observing an RCT, I noticed the dentist slowly vacuum back the initial excess irrigant using the empty irrigant syringe. After this, it only needs a few paper points per canal to get it bone dry.

But how do you know when its dry? You can look at the paper point of course, but there was one method I found easier. Wipe the paper point against the rubber dam after withdrawing it from the canal. If its still wet, it will leave a line of moisture on the rubber dam which is much easier to see, especially if using a headlight as it will readily glisten in the light. Once again, another tip I learnt from one of the experienced dentists at my practice.

While these are pretty simple tips which I’m sure many of you are already doing, its something I didn’t know until it was shown to be by one of my colleagues. Its little tips like this that make our every-day procedures just a little quicker and easier.

Let us know if you have any little tips or tricks you’d like to share!