Backfill Techniques

Syringe Backfill Technique
• The speed of extrusion is set on the control
panel of the System-B/Elements unit. After
pre-heating (45 seconds) the forward toggle
switch on the handpiece is pressed until mate-
rial extrudes out of the needle tip, to “prime”
the needle. Note: when using RealSeal set the
heat on your System-B/Elements unit to “S” for
synthetic.
• Place the heated needle into the canal and wait
a full 5 seconds, allowing the needle to reheat
after being cooled by contact with the dentin.
• After the 5 second pause, with the needle lightly
held in place, press one of the handpiece toggle
switches (back button for medium speed;
forward button for faster speed) and begin to
extrude the gutta percha.
• After the extruded material fills the backfill
space ahead of the needle, the backpressure of
the extruded gutta percha will move the needle
back out of the canal. It’s important that you
resist the temptation to pull the needle out of
the canal... let the extruded gutta percha back
it out. Take your time, and allow about 5-10
seconds for the needle to reach the orifice level.
• Using the rigid stainless steel end of the appro-
priate CW hand plugger, give the warm gutta
percha a very firm condensation push. You can
eliminate a void 4 mm’s away if you apply
enough pressure here.
Single-Cone Backfill Technique (Ideal for Medium and Large Canals)
• Downpack through the master cone as usual,
but do not perform the one-second separation
burst. Instead, allow the plugger to cool in the
canal for about 10 seconds (2 clicks from the
System-B/Elements unit).
• Break the plugger loose by rotating it back and
forth with apical pressure, and then while
rotating it, tease out the still-cold plugger.
• Place an AutoFit™ backfill cone (the same size
as the plugger used for the downpack) coated
with sealer into the empty backfilling space
and move it in and out 3 -4 times to make sure
that sealer coats the backfill space. The area
left by the plugger will exactly match the
shape of the backfill cone.
• Sear the cone off at the orifice level with the
System-B/Elements electric heat plugger.
• Place the rigid stainless steel end of the hand
plugger against the gutta percha, and with a
firm sustained pressure, condense the coronal
mass at the orifice level.
• This technique is also ideal for removing voids
created during an extruder backfill. Adjust the
stop on the CW heat plugger so that it reaches
beyond the existing void. Plunge the heated
plugger through the void, cool for 10 seconds,
then remove the cold plugger and complete
the backfill using the steps outlined above.

• If you are using RealSeal, light cure the coronal • If you are using RealSeal, light cure the coronal
surface for 40 seconds. surface for 40 seconds.

D ENTAL E DUCATION L ABORATORIES Chart

L . S TEPHEN B UCHANAN, DDS
© 2-2008 All rights reserved For a laminated and spiral bound set of ten color flowcharts contact Dental Education Laboratories • Toll Free: 800.528.1590 • World Wide: 805.899.4529 • www.endobuchanan.com 10