Endodontic or root canal treatment is one of the most important dental procedures employed in modern dentistry. Although there have been many results in surgical simulation in the past two decades, little work has been done on endodontics. The objective of this thesis is to explore critical issues for simulating root canal procedures effectively and efficiently, and to develop an interactive virtual environment featured with both visual and haptic feedback to facilitate endodontic training, which opens new roads to the research of root canal simulation and endodontic training. Beyond endodontics, the results of this work can be extended and applied to other kinds of medical simulation and biomechanical modeling, especially the simulations featured with interactions between soft tissue and solid tool objects. / This work covers both theories and methodologies related to the interactive endodontic simulation and validation, including dynamic modeling, visual and haptic display, model validation and statistical learning. We focus on the simulation of the most critical step in the entire endodontic procedure---shaping root canal with endodontic files. There are four major contributions of this thesis. First, we propose a dynamic model to simulate endodontic shaping operations, which is a smoothed particle based dynamic model derived for the pulpal tissue coupled with a finite element model for the endodontic files. This approach effectively characterizes the special properties and constraints associated with both the pulpal tissue and the endodontic files. Second, we implement the derived dynamic model and build up the virtual environment for endodontic simulation with both graphic and haptic interfaces. Third, we design a novel Robotic Endodontic Measurement System to acquire real haptic data of interactions between root canal and endodontic files during endodontic shaping, and propose an experimental validation method to evaluate the performance of derived dynamic model. Finally, we propose a support vector regression model to accurately characterize the input-output haptic mapping for endodontic shaping operation. The optimized parameters of this model can be learned from robotic endodontic measurements with RBF kernel. / Li Min. / "December 2005." / Adviser: Yun-Hui Liu. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 67-11, Section: B, page: 6554. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 108-116). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. [Ann Arbor, MI] : ProQuest Information and Learning, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / School code: 1307.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / The aim of this current study was to determine if the exposure of human dental pulp stem cells (HDPSC) to the DynaMatrix membrane will result in an increased production of angiogenic cytokines that are critical for pulp/root regeneration. Angiogenesis cytokine arrays have been established as a viable method for assessing expression of cytokines.20 HDPSC were chosen as they are expected to be found in the apical papilla and the infected immature root canal system of teeth that current regenerative endodontic techniques are designed to treat.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / This in-vitro, prospective, randomized study microscopically compared the debridement efficacy of passive ultrasonic irrigation (PUI) using the Ultrasonic Bypass System and different irrigating protocols. Eighty extracted maxillary anterior teeth were randomly assigned to four groups. Teeth were instrumented using EndoSequence rotary instrument system and treated with passive ultrasonic irrigation with different irrigating regimens for one minute. Group one (control) was treated with hand/rotary instrumentation. Group two was treated with hand/rotary instrumentation followed by a one-minute PUI using the Ultrasonic Bypass System with 6.0-percent NaOCl. Group three was treated with hand/rotary instrumentation followed by a one-minute PUI using the Ultrasonic Bypass System with 17-percent EDTA. Group four was treated with hand/rotary instrumentation followed by a one-minute PUI using the Ultrasonic Bypass System with 30 seconds of 6.0-percent NaOCl and 30 seconds of 17-percent EDTA. Teeth were sectioned longitudinally and each half was divided into three equal parts from the anatomic apex. The half with the most visible part of the apex was used for SEM evaluation. A scoring system for debris and smear layer removal was used. Statistical analysis was performed using a Kruskal-Wallis test, which determines if there are any differences among the four groups. Following this test, a Wilcoxon Rank Sum test was used to compare each pair of groups. The addition of a one-minute PUI with the Ultrasonic Bypass System significantly enhanced the removal of smear layer when compared with the hand/rotary instrumentation with conventional irrigating solutions. The Ultrasonic Bypass System when used with the combination of 6.0-percent NaOCl and 17-percent EDTA after hand/rotary instrumentation significantly removed smear layer at the coronal, middle, and apical areas of a tooth when compared with all other groups. A one-minute PUI with the Ultrasonic Bypass System combined with NaOCl and EDTA is significantly better in smear removal and ultimately will result cleaner canal wall.