Selection of teeth
The present study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the Hospital of Stomatology, Guangzhou Medical University (number KY2017012). Collected extracted human first premolars from orthodontic tooth extraction in oral and maxillofacial surgery, patients were requested if they could provide their extracted premolars to be used as specimens. When they gave consent, they were asked to sign an agreement form to indicate that they were willing to provide their extracted premolars for specimens. Soft and hard tissue residuals on the surfaces of the teeth were removed using an ultrasonic scaler. All teeth had a fully formed apex without any defects or cracks on the surface and had no history of restoration. A curvature of 0-20°according to Schneider [16] on buccolingual and mesiodistal radiograghs was selected. Because the selected teeth were similar dimensions, there was no statistically significant difference (P>.05) in BL, MD or tooth root length between the CEC and TEC groups. The teeth were kept in 1% chloramine T trihydrate at room temperature until use.
Manufacture of 3D-printed splint guide
The guided access cavity was prepared using cone-beam computed tomography and optical surface scans. A high-resolution cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) scan was taken to determine the exact location of the root canal, the drill was virtually superimposed on the root canal to plan the CEC outlines by projecting the access trajectory in each canal orifice that required the least tooth structure removal in Simplant (Simplant, Materialise Dental, Leuven, Belgium)(Fig. 1). The data were then imported into Freeform (Geomagic Freeform, 3D Systems, Morrisville, North Carolina, USA). According to the location of the drill in Simplant, we made a guide template with straight-line pathways into canals. The digitally designed template was exported as a STL-file, and then was sent to a 3D printer (3D System 3510HB, 3D Systems, Morrisville, North Carolina, USA).
TEC and CEC preparation
In CEC preparation, a 3D-printed template was positioned on the tooth model, and a guiding sleeve was placed on the hole. CECs were drilled with long diamond burs (MANI SF-11, MANI INC, Japan) at high speed, the CEC access attested the distal and mesial accesses could directed towards their respective orifices, which kept back the truss of dentin between the cavities (Fig. 2). In the TEC group, conventional access cavities were prepared. After initial preparation with pathfile instruments (Dentsply Maillefer, Ballaigues, Switzerland), canals were prepared with .04 taper M-Two rotary instruments (VDW company, Germany) to size 35#. These instruments were used in a standard technique, The canals were irrigated with 3 ml of 5.25% sodium hypochlorite between use of each instrument, and then, each canal was irrigated with 5% NaOCl followed by irrigation for 30 seconds with ultrasonic oscillation tip (K15/21-25, SATELEC, France) coupled with an ultrasound device (SATELEC P5XS, Merignac, France) at power 7. After cleaning and shaping, the teeth were imaged again with micro-CT imaging at 20 µm to capture the instrumented canal shape (posttreatment scan). All canals were obturated with gutta-percha cones (Dentsply Sirona) and AH plus sealer (Dentsply DeTrey, Konstanz, Germany). The thermoplastic continuous wave of condensation technique was used for obturation using a B&L-beta Gutta Percha Heating System (B&L Biotech, Inc, Korea). Smart Dentin Replacement (Dentsply, DE, USA) was used to imitate the lost dentin tissue and 2mm composite resin restorative material (Gradia Direct Posterior) was placed on the canal opening. The teeth were stored in physiological saline at 37°C for one week. Each specimen was subjected to micro-CT (SkyScan 1172; Bruker micro-CT, Kontich, Belgium) before and after instrumentation and irrigation as well as after obturation.
Load at fracture
After root canal filling and micro-CT scanning, teeth with a 3D printed cylindrical lampstand were mounted in an Instron Testing machine (E3000, Instron, High Wycombe, UK). The specimens were subjected to 500000 loading cycles in the Instron Testing machine (E3000) axial forces, directed at a 135 angle from the long axis of the tooth [17], between 5 N-50 N at 15 HZ to simulate approximately 2 years of chewing function [18,19]. After this fatigue phase, the specimens were placed in the Instron Universal Testing Machine (E3366, Instron, MA, America). Each tooth was loaded at the central fossa at 135° from the tooth long axis to simulate a maximum bending motion of the tooth at buccal cervical areas.9 A continuous compressive force was applied with a 2-mm spherical crosshead at 1 mm/min until failure occurred, which was defined as a 25% drop in the applied force [20] (Fig. 3A). The load at fracture was recorded in Newton (N), and the type of fracture was recorded (Fig. 3B).
Evaluation methodology
Canal and crown boundaries were demarcated at the buccallingual level of the cementoenamel junction in single-rooted premolars, and canal boundaries were demarcated in root separation in premolars with two dental roots. After reconstruction with NRecon (Bruker micro CT, Kontich, Belgium) software, the volume of the tooth was analyzed with CT AN software (Bruker micro CT, Kontich, Belgium), we selected appropriate CT value as the segmentation of tooth volume. After the pretreatment scan and posttreatment scan were aligned in Data Viewer software (Bruker micro CT, Kontich, Belgium), the increased canal volume and surface areas after root canals shaped during the two different access opening procedures were measured using CT An software. The proportion of untouched canal wall (UCW) in the canals was determined with 3-matic (Fig. 4) and we measured the sectional section of 1 mm, 3 mm, and 5 mm from the apical and the deviation of central point in Solid Work (Dassault, France) (Fig. 5). The percentage volume of root filling materials and any voids inside the region of interest were calculated in CT An software, and all areas without filling within the root canal space were considered voids, all analyses were calculated separately for the cervical, middle and apical thirds of the canal.
Statistical Analysis
The data were analyzed using IBM SPSS Statistics 16 software (Armonk, NY, USA), it were compared with independent samples T tests and the Mann-Whitney U test, P < .05 was considered significant.