The first experiences of preclinical dentistry students with rotary instruments: A pilot study

Rotary instrumentation has been included in the undergraduate endodontic curriculum to improve the quality of endodontic treatment. The aim of this study was to compare the technical quality of root canal fillings performed by preclinical dentistry students trained with hand instrumentation (THI) or not during their initial trial with rotary instruments. Twenty-four 3rd-year students were distributed into two groups: 12 students THI group and 12 students not trained with hand instrumentation (NTHI group). Both the groups received a 50-min theoretical lecture and a demonstration about the ProTaper Universal® system before being asked to complete endodontic treatments on one extracted maxillary central incisor, premolar, and molar using rotary instrumentation and obturation with the single-cone technique. The endodontic treatment technical quality was determined by periapical radiographs. Data were statistically analyzed, and P < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. A total of 144 root canals were performed by preclinical students. Although the difference in the technical quality of the canals was nonsignificant among the groups (P > 0.05), the THI group had more adequately filled root canals (45.8%) than the NTHI group (29.2%). Only maxillary central incisors had underfilled canals, whereas teeth with multirooted canals were subjected to various procedural errors in both the groups (P > 0.05). Intensive hand instrumentation (HI) preclinical training did not significantly improve the technical quality of root canals performed by preclinical dentistry students during their initial trial with rotary instruments. The student’s familiarity with HI did not decrease the incidence of procedural errors when performing root canal treatment with rotary instruments.