Patent ID: 8439682

Claim:
A set of endodontic instruments adapted to remove material from walls of a root canal, each instrument comprising an elongate shaft having a proximal end adjacent a handle adapted to be gripped by the hand of a user or a fitting for mechanically coupling to a dental handpiece to be selectively rotatably and axially driven within a root canal of a tooth and a distal end spaced from the proximal end by the length of the instrument, wherein a portion of the shaft adjacent the distal end of the instrument defines a working portion with a short working length of 10 mm having cutting edges adapted to extirpate material from a root canal, and an untapered nonworking portion of the shaft having a diameter the same as the diameter of the proximal end of the working portion wherein such untapered nonworking portion extends from adjacent a proximal end of the working portion to the proximal end of the shaft, wherein the working portions of the set of instruments have small taper rates slowly progressing in 0.01 mm/mm increments from 0.01 mm/mm for the least tapered instrument in the set to 0.04 mm/mm for the most tapered instrument in the set, and wherein the working portion of all of the instruments in the set has a diameter at the distal end which is the same.