ProTaper Gold® F2, 25mm (6)

ProTaper Gold® · F2 025/.08v · 25 mm · pack of 6

Curved canalsApical finishingSterileSingle use25 mm

The finishing size most molars gauge to

F2 takes an ISO 020 preparation to an ISO 025 tip on a .08 variable taper. For a great many canals it is where the sequence stops, which is why it is the size most practices reorder first.

Dentsply Sirona’s own figures against ProTaper® Universal, internal testing, data on file. x 2.6 is the F3 file; x 2.4 the system.

This pack: ProTaper Gold® F2 Rotary File, 25 mm (Pack of 6)
Made by Dentsply Sirona · legal manufacturer Maillefer Instruments Holding Sàrl, Ballaigues · UK representative Dentsply IH Ltd, Stonehouse

Key features

›  Same geometry as ProTaper Universal. Dentsply Sirona are explicit about it, and the pull-quote below is their wording. If you know the ProTaper sequence, you already know this file.
›  Heat-treated nickel titanium. The instructions describe it as nickel titanium alloy “followed by a heat treatment”. That is the whole difference, and it is what the gold colour is telling you.
›  Non-cutting tip. A small flat area on the tip helps it find its way through soft tissue and debris while following the part of the canal you have already secured.
›  Convex triangular cross-section. With the progressive taper, it cuts while keeping the blade off the dentine between flutes – less rotational friction.
›  11 mm handle. Two millimetres shorter than ProTaper Universal’s, which is two millimetres of access you get back on a second molar.
›  Gauge with ISO 025. The instructions have you check the foramen with a hand file of the same size after this one. Snug at length and you are finished.

The numbers

How Dentsply Sirona sequence it

1  Scout and confirm a glide path. Passively scout the coronal two thirds with ISO 010 and ISO 015 hand files in a viscous chelator, and work them until a smooth, reproducible glide path is confirmed. Mechanised glide path files may be used after an ISO 010 hand file.

2  Shape with S1, then S2. In the presence of sodium hypochlorite, brush and follow along the glide path, cutting dentine laterally on the outstroke – always brushing away from the furcation – to the depth the ISO 015 hand file reached.

3  Scout the apical third, then take S1 and S2 to length. Establish working length, confirm patency, verify the glide path apically, then brush S1 and S2 to working length.

4  Finish with F1, without brushing. Each insertion deeper than the last, until working length is reached. Do not leave the file at working length for longer than one second.

5  Gauge the foramen with an ISO 020 hand file. Snug at length and the preparation is finished. Loose at length and you continue with F2, and if necessary F3, F4 and F5, gauging after each one with a hand file of the same size.

6  Dry and obturate. Dedicated paper points to dry, and dedicated gutta percha points with sealer to obturate. Then seal the access coronally.

Abridged from the nineteen numbered steps in the ProTaper Gold instructions for use, February 2026. Irrigate abundantly and frequently after each instrument, as those instructions require throughout. We are a distributor, not a clinical authority: this is Dentsply Sirona’s sequence, not ours.

Motor settings

300 rpm in continuous rotation, torque 3 – 4 Ncm. Those figures are from the February 2026 instructions for use and are not in the 2017 brochure, which gives no torque at all. Note the shape of the table: the shaping files take the most torque and S2 and F1 the least.

X-Smart Pro+ and X-Smart Go both reach 6 Ncm at 300 rpm – the X-Smart Go holds its full 6 Ncm anywhere from 50 to 400 rpm, on its own instructions for use. Neither carries a built-in ProTaper Gold programme, so these settings go into a user memory.

What the independent evidence says

Dentsply Sirona’s own figures are internal data, and we label them as such above. They are worth more than that, because two peer-reviewed papers found the same thing.

Hieawy and colleagues put ProTaper Gold and ProTaper Universal through rotational bending and ISO 3630-1 flexibility testing and concluded that “PTG files were significantly more flexible and resistant to fatigue than PTU files”. They traced it to the metal: the austenite finish temperature of ProTaper Gold measured 50.1 °C against 21.2 °C for Universal. Hieawy et al., Journal of Endodontics, 2015 – a laboratory study.

Gagliardi and colleagues scanned twenty-four mandibular molars before and after preparation and found ProTaper Gold transported the canal less than ProTaper Universal (0.11 mm against 0.14 mm) and removed less dentine (22.7% against 29.9%). Gagliardi et al., Journal of Endodontics, 2015 – ex vivo, mesial canals, prepared to F2. It does not speak for F3, F4 or F5.

“ProTaper Gold® rotary files feature the same exact geometries as ProTaper® Universal, but offer an increase in flexibility. This is especially important in the finishing files, when navigating challenging curves in the apical region.”

Dentsply Sirona, ProTaper Gold brochure, ROW EN, 11/2017

Before you buy

Dentsply Sirona’s instructions carry one limitation worth reading before you buy, and the opening clause does the work: “Similar to all machine-driven root canal instruments, ProTaper Gold instruments should not be used in a root canal with an abrupt apical curvature due to heightened risk of separation. In this case, pre-curved hand files should be used in the apical region.” It is a limit on every engine-driven file, not a knock on this one, and the remedy is a hand file you already stock.

Contraindications: none known. And one piece of reassurance worth printing, because it generates returns otherwise – the instructions say the files “may appear slightly curved. This is not a manufacturing defect”. It comes from the heat treatment. You can straighten one with your fingers, and you do not need to.

Single use, and what a pack of six actually buys

In the UK, endodontic reamers and files are treated as single use. That instruction came from Barry Cockcroft, Chief Dental Officer for England, on 19 April 2007, and the Chief Medical Officer and Chief Dental Officer of Scotland issued the same line the same day. It is a UK requirement rather than anything particular to this file or to us. Worth doing the arithmetic on the right unit: a blister of six is six canals, not six cases.

Dentsply Sirona’s EU instructions describe ProTaper Gold as a reusable sterile instrument with a reprocessing procedure. The UK position above is a requirement of practice here, not a statement about the device, and the two are not in conflict. For extremely curved canals the manufacturer goes further than the UK rule and advises one file per canal.

Questions we get asked

Is ProTaper Gold the same shape as ProTaper Universal?
Yes – Dentsply Sirona say so explicitly. Same geometries, same sequence, same motor action. The alloy is heat treated and the handle is 11 mm instead of 13 mm.

Do I need a glide path?
Yes. The instructions have you scout the coronal two thirds with ISO 010 and ISO 015 hand files and confirm a smooth, reproducible glide path before S1 goes in. ProGlider or PathFile may be used after an ISO 010 hand file. This is not a system that claims to go without one.

Which gutta percha fits it?
ProTaper Gold Conform Fit gutta percha F2 is the matched cone, and ProTaper Gold paper points F2 the matched point. A variable-taper preparation filled with a constant-taper cone is the wrong cone.

Can I use it in a sharply curved canal?
Read the limitation above first. In an abrupt apical curvature the manufacturer says to use pre-curved hand files in the apical region instead – and that applies to every engine-driven file, not just this one.

Complete the case

Downloads

›  ProTaper Gold® brochure (PDF, 1.5 MB, Dentsply Sirona) – the geometry table, the full product reference list and the published claims.

Geometry, sizes, tapers, torque, speed and the sequence are from the ProTaper Gold instructions for use, END-IFU-PROTAPER-GOLD-REUSABLE-STERILE-V03, February 2026 (their document, on their site), and the ProTaper Gold brochure, ROW EN, 11/2017. The flexibility and cyclic-fatigue figures are Dentsply Sirona’s internal testing, data on file; the independent studies cited are laboratory and ex vivo work and are labelled as such. Dentsply Sirona, ProTaper, ProTaper Gold, Conform Fit, Thermafil, Glyde, ProGlider, PathFile, X-Smart and SDR are their trademarks.

ProTaper Gold® F2 · 025/.08v · 25 mm · blister of 6 · sterile · single use in the UK · 300 rpm · REF A0411225G0203