A new study has highlighted inadequacies in the performance of root canal fillings among undergraduate dental students.
Despite prior studies demonstrating that root canal treatments have a high rate of success, undergraduate dental students often have far lower success rates, which may indicate a lack of undergraduate endodontic training programs, noted investigators. The lower success rates are more pronounced on molars, which have more complex morphologic structure and canal systems compared with other tooth groups.
"Given that preclinical dental education is a critical step in preparing students for clinical practice, particular attention should be paid to the training of students in performing root canal fillings on molar teeth," wrote investigators.
In the retrospective cross-sectional study, investigators assessed the quality of root canal fillings performed on 260 extracted first and second mandibular molars as part of undergraduate students’ preclinical training programs. They used endodontics records and periapical radiographs to evaluate the samples with regard to their length, density and taper.
Although undergraduate students in their third year were more efficient compared with students in their second year (44.5% vs 12%), the investigators found that just 25.8% (n = 67) of the overall root canal fillings were sufficient on the basis of technical quality. Further, the students were found to be more susceptible to manual instrumentation and procedural errors.
The incorporation of more effective root canal trainings—covering contemporary filling techniques as well as the most advanced materials—into training programs could help improve the technical proficiency of root canal fillings among undergraduate dental students.
The study authors reported no conflicts of interest.
Source: Scientific Reports
