Challenges faced by final year dental students and house officers while performing endodontic treatment.

Abstract

Objective: To identify the challenges faced by final year dental students and house officers while performing endodontic treatment. Study Design: Cross sectional study. Setting: Multicenter study. Setting: Involving Dental Colleges of Twin Cities Dental Hospitals of Islamabad and Rawalpindi including Islamabad Dental Hospital, Islamic International Dental Hospital, Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences, Armed Forces Institute of Dentistry, Rawal Institute of Health Sciences and Margalla Institute of Health Sciences. Period: June 2023 to December 2023. Material & Methods: This cross sectional descriptive study was conducted on 263 participants. The inclusion criteria was final year dental students and house officers who had completed their mandatory rotation in endodontics department and performed root canal treatment with conventional methods. A structured questionnaire consisting of five sections containing patient management, access opening, working length determination, cleaning and shaping procedure and obturation was constructed. Google forms were sent to the participants after sample size was calculated with WHO calculator. Data was analyzed through Google forms. Results: The current study shows that majority of the participants faced difficulties in the patient management and obturation procedure. The overall most common difficulty encountered was rubber dam application (44.1%) followed by accessory GP bending during obturation (42%), apex locator use (39.4%), and canal orifice location (39.8%). Conclusion: The students and house officers are facing multiple difficulties in performing root canal treatment independently. Therefore there is a need to focus more on the training of students and house officers in their endodontic department rotation.