Assessment of Root Canal Treatment Outcomes Performed by Turkish Dental Students: Results After Two Years

The aim of this study was to evaluate radiographically the periapical status and technical standard of root canal therapies performed by a group of undergraduate dental students in Turkey two years following completion of the treatments. A random sample of 264 patients who received root canal treatment from undergraduate students at the Yeditepe University Faculty of Dentistry in 2009 were recalled after two years. The study sample consisted of 319 root-filled teeth in 158 dental patients (females=97, males=61) who presented to the student clinics during that time frame. For each root-filled tooth, two periapical radiographs were examined to identify the periapical status, one showing pre-treatment and the other showing post-treatment status. The quality of endodontic treatment was examined according to the distance between the end of root filling and radiographic apex and the density of the obturation according to presence of voids within the root filling material. This examination found that 54.2 percent of roots had fillings of acceptable length, while 37.3 percent were short, 7.8 percent were overfilled, and 0.6 percent was unfilled; 2.5 percent of the teeth were observed with broken root canal instruments. After two years, PAI scores of teeth with acceptable length of root canal filling (0-2 mm from the radiographic apex) were found to be lower than those of the overfilling and short filling cases (>2mm) (p<0.01). Moreover, voids were detected in the root canal fillings of 52.7 percent of endodontically treated teeth. The PAT scores of root fillings with inadequate density were significantly higher than adequate ones (p<0.01). Although endodontic treatments performed by undergraduate students do not appear to be unqualified compared to those performed by general practitioners, more emphasis must be placed on the technical quality of endodontic treatment to obtain better results.