Herbert Schilder, 77; Improved Techniques for Root Canals

Herbert Schilder, 77, a dental surgeon who made root canals safer and more successful by refining instruments and techniques used to perform them, died of the brain malady Lewy body disease Jan. 25 at his home in Newton, Mass., his family said.

In the 1960s, Schilder devised a root canal technique that involved cleaning a tooth’s infected tissue, filling it vertically and compacting it with a heated plastic material that upon cooling expands to fill the gap.

The approach, which stopped the tooth’s internal tissue from deteriorating, remains widely used today.

His pioneering method was immortalized in the 2003 film “Finding Nemo” when Nemo -- a fish in an aquarium in a dentist’s office -- watches a root canal being performed. “Now he’s doing the Schilder technique,” says the wincing starfish Peach.

Schilder grew up in Brooklyn, N.Y., and received his undergraduate and dental degrees from New York University. From 1966 to 1999, he was chairman of Boston University’s department of endodontics.