Abstract
Aim: To explore endodontic procedural errors committed by undergraduate dental students in King Khaled University (KKU), Abha and AlFarabi dental school, Riyadh.
Material and methods: In this cross-sectional study, questionnaire was distributed to 500 dental students from both schools and both genders in 5th and 6th academic years. Participants were asked to record their endodontic procedural error(s) that had been occurred while training.
Results: The returned and eligible questionnaires were 469 (93.8% response rate) and almost equally distributed by university (KKU and Alfarabi). The participants’ age ranged from 22 to 24 years and around 47% of them were females and 65% were sixth level students. Almost 56% of the sample reported at least one endodontic procedural error during their training. Females reported errors (65%) more frequently than the males did (49%; P=0.002). Up to 54% of these errors were in the posterior teeth and 65% were in teeth with curved roots. Most of the access cavity errors were gouging (68%), and those of instrumentation were ledge (47%) while those of obturation were voids (41%).
Conclusion: The frequency of reported endodontic procedural errors by senior dental students in both schools…show more content… The root canal system has a very complex and variable morphology. This causes challenges to a dental student where mishaps commonly occurred. Endodontic procedural errors such as void, over filling, under filling, gouging, furcation perforations, missed canal, perforation, ledge, zipping, broken files, and apical perforation, are considered among the causes for endodontic failure. [1]; these errors can occur during any stage of root canal treatment (access cavity preparation, instrumentation, obturation) will complicate the treatment and ultimately may lead to failure of treatment