VDW C-PILOT® 15, 25mm (6)

VDW® C-PILOT® ISO 015 · 25 mm · 6 sterile files

The size that hands the canal over to the motor

Glide path finished by hand, or finished by the glider? Either way, 015 is where the manual sequence ends. It is the tip size the mechanical glide path instruments are built around, and the point at which a shaping file meets a canal that has already been measured, opened and confirmed patent rather than one it has to discover for itself. C-PILOT® 015 is the last hand instrument in the sequence – thermally hardened stainless steel, inactive pilot tip, radiopaque marks.

This pack: 6 × VDW®STERILE C-PILOT® ISO 015, 25 mm, .02 taper · pre-mounted silicone stoppers · mfr code 368 025 015
Made by VDW GmbH, Munich, Germany

Why the handover point matters

A nickel-titanium shaping file entering a canal that has been taken to a loose 015 is doing one job: removing dentine along a path that already exists. The same file entering an unprepared canal is scouting, negotiating and shaping simultaneously, and it is the scouting that loads it in torsion. This is the whole argument for the glide path, and it is why the literature reports fewer canal aberrations and a lower risk of shaping file separation when one is established first (van der Vyver and colleagues, South African Dental Journal 2019).

015 also happens to be the tip size of the mechanical glide path instruments – the WaveOne® Gold Glider carries a 015 tip. A hand 015 that reaches length tells you the canal will accept them; a hand 015 that stops short tells you something more useful still, which is to go back rather than forward.

Enables creation of a smooth glide path prior to every rotary preparation.
— VDW's published description of the STERILE C-PILOT® range.

Using it

› Loose, not tight – 015 should move freely to length before you consider the glide path finished. If it binds, drop back to ISO 12.5 and work again.
› Confirm length here – 015 is stiff enough to give a reliable apex locator reading and visible enough on a film.
› Keep one for recapitulation – between shaping instruments, a 015 re-establishes patency without enlarging.
› Single use – supplied gamma sterilised in a blister of six; VDW recommend single use, in line with the UK position on endodontic files since April 2007 (CMO(2007)5).

Questions we get asked

If I own a glider, do I need hand 015 at all?
Yes, for two reasons: it is how you check the canal is ready for the glider, and it is what you reach for when the glider will not advance. It is also the recapitulation instrument during shaping.

Can I start with 015 in an easy canal?
In a wide, straight canal many clinicians do. In anything narrow or curved, starting at 015 is how ledges are made – begin at 010 or below.

Does a glide path mean the rotary file cannot separate?
No. It reduces the work the shaping file has to do and the literature associates it with fewer aberrations and a lower fracture risk – but technique, curvature and single use still decide the outcome.

Complete the system

VDW® C-PILOT® ISO 015 · 25 mm · .02 taper · glide path · recapitulation · working length · calcified canals · stainless steel · sterile · single use · 6 files · VDW GmbH · REF V040368025015 · also in 21 mm and 19 mm