Radiographic Evaluation of Errors during the Root Canal Treatment by 5th and 6th Year Undergraduate Students of Islamic Azad University of Isfahan (Khorasgan) from 2015 to 2018

Abstract

Introduction: Quality of root canal treatment is considered as an important prognostic factor for endodontic therapy success. The aim of this study is to evaluate radiographic errors during the root canal treatment by 5th and 6th year undergraduate students of Islamic Azad university of Isfahan (Khorasgan) from 2015 to 2018. Materials & Methods: In this study records of 860 cases of endodontic treatment of patients referred to the General Endodontics Department and the Comprehensive Treatment Department of Isfahan Azad University (Khorasgan) during 2015-2018 including 1903 root canals that had received root canal treatment were examined. Periapical radiography was used to evaluate errors during access cavity preparation, canal preparation, and canal filling by two endodontic specialists and it was recorded in pre-prepared forms. In the access cavity preparation: furcation perforation, low access cavity expansion, high access cavity expansion were evaluated. During the canal preparation phase, errors such as missing of canal, ledge, transport, perforation types and broken instruments were investigated. Length and density of root filing were the criteria evaluated at the canal filling stage. The analysis was performed at both descriptive and inferential levels. Statistical analysis was performed by Chi-Square test and exact Fisher's test. Results: Frequency of acceptable root canal treatment (without errors) was 37.5%. Lower first molars showed the highest error rate (40.7%). Furcation perforation was reported with 9.4% highest error of access cavity preparation. The highest error rate was reported transport (7.8%) in the preparation phase. Inadequate density (gap) of 36.9% and under filling of 31.1% had the highest error in filling stage. Conclusion: According to the results of this study, it can be stated that general endodontics department needs careful planning to increase the quality of root canal treatments performed by students.