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Volume 5 Issue 1 (January, 2017)

Original Articles

ASSESSMENT OF QUALITY OF ROOT CANAL FILLINGS PERFORMED BY UNDERGRADUATE DENTAL STUDENTS
Vineet Galhotra, Tarunvir Rai, Inderdeep Kaur

Background: Root canal therapy is widely recognized as an intricate dental procedure. Previous reports indicate that the therapy is often of poor quality. Aim of this study was to evaluate the radiographic quality of root canal fillings performed by final year and internship dental students. Materials and methods: The study was conducted in the Department of Conservative and Endodontics in the institution. For the study, a random sample of 200 radiographs of patients who had undergone root canal treatment in a year in the institution was selected. The final sample included 246 root canal fillings of 135 teeth in patients treated by undergraduate dental students. The examination of the radiographs was done by three observers- a endodontist specialist with 14 years clinical experience (TK), an endodontist specialist with 8 years’ experience (SD), and a general dentistry practitioner (MB). Results: Females comprised 81 subjects of the sample and males comprised 54 subjects of the sample. The percentage of GQEW-T was 60% in females and 40% in males; the difference between the genders was not statistically significant (P>05). Fifty three (39.25%) teeth were treated by final year undergraduates, and 82 (60.74%) were treated by interns. Of the 460 teeth, 3 (2%) were re-treatments. There were no significant differences between the final year dental students and interns for all types of teeth (anterior, premolar, and molar) (P>.05). Conclusion: The quality of root canal fillings in anterior teeth performed by undergraduate dental students was satisfactory. However, to improve the success with molar teeth, education about newer techniques and instruments must be incorporated into the preclinical and clinical curriculum.
Keywords: undergraduate, endodontic treatment, root canal, final year

 
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