Magnification aids in endodontics: A review

Document Type : Original Article

Author

Assistant Professor and Vice Dean academic affairs, Department of conservative dental science, College of Dentistry, Qassim University.

Abstract

Objective: The purpose of this review for the magnification aids in endodontics was to describe in detail various magnifying devices, their use and the advantages and disadvantages in clinical surgical and conventional endodontic therapy with recent innovation and technological advancement in magnifying
Methodology: The author searched Qassim university library relevant journal articles manually and the website MEDLINE, Clinical key, EBSCO, google Scholar, Cochrane. The keywords for the search articles were dental operating microscope, dental magnifying loupes, dental endoscopes, dental orascope, root canal treatment, endodontic micro-surgeries magnification devices. The relevant articles describing the magnification devices were considered for the review.
Conclusion: The literature on the magnification devices is very limited for the most recent magnifying devices and their use is also very limited to the elite and developed countries in endodontic practice. However, dental operating microscope, being considered as standard of care, is commonly available but are less frequently used routinely. Dental magnifying loupes are with low magnification. However, its use is common due to low price and easy to use. Randomized clinical trials, comparing between these magnifying devices for precision and root canal treatment outcome is the need of the hour. Conventional Endodontic therapy and surgical endodontics should apply magnification devices to be used in clinical practice routinely.