The purpose of our study is to evaluate the ability of nickel-titanium(NiTi) files in maintaining the original curvature of a curved root canal during canal preparation. Curved canals on translucent resin blocks were prepared with NiTi and stainless steel files, and they were placed at the platform which can reproduce the same position. The unprepared and prepared canal forms were accurately compared by double exposure technique of photography. By finite element methods we also analyzed stress distributions of NiTi and stainless steel files in a curved canal. The results were as follows : 1. NiTi files were excellent in maintaining the original curvature of a curved canal than stainless steel files after canal preparation. 2. The results of canal preparation with these files were well verified by the analysis of stress distributions using finite element methods.