Perception of the clinical endodontic practice of Dentistry graduates in their first years in the job market in southern Brazil

Abstract

Introduction: Knowledge about the clinical endodontic practices of dental school graduates in the first years of their professional life may contribute to the discussions about Dentistry teaching. Methods: An online questionnaire with seven open and closed questions hosted on the Google forms platform was applied to dentists trained in the first half of 2019 in a School of Dentistry in southern Brazil. The questionnaire is structured to analyze how clinical Endodontics has been practiced in the labor market. The data collected in the questionnaires were transferred to an Excel® spreadsheet and analyzed as absolute and relative frequencies for closed questions and descriptions for open questions. Results: Molars and two-rooted teeth are the dental groups most frequently treated endodontically (64.3% and 35.7%). Both retreatment and conservative treatment of the pulp corresponded to up to 25% of all procedures in the graduates’ clinical practice. The endodontic protocol learned in their dental school was used by 64.3% of the graduates who provided endodontic treatments, and 42.9% reported the occurrence of at least one accident. The difficulty in access reported by the participants suggests that more training should be provided for this operative stage. Conclusions: After two years in the job market and having faced the initial difficulties existing in any profession, more than half of the graduates still performed endodontics in their dental clinical practice and used the same protocols learned in dental school.