Morphology of the physiological apical foramen of maxillary premolars

The purpose of this study was to determine the shape and diameter of the physiological foramen in maxillary premolars of a Chilean population. The sample consisted of 125 extracted maxillary premolars, in which the apical three to five millimeters were cut and observed under magnification of 40x, photographed (Motic Cam), and analyzed using Motic Images Plus 2.0 ML in order to obtain measurements of the minor and major diameter of each physiological foramen. The average minor and major diameter in maxillary premolars was 0.270 and 0.413 mm, respectively. In terms of shape, 72.19 % had oval shaped physiological foramen; 18.93 % were irregularly shaped and 8.88 % were round. Oval and irregular canals are significantly more difficult to shape and require special attention in order to obtain a thoroughly disinfected root canal system.