The perspectives of dental clinical students about the challenges of endodontic procedures

Purpose: To evaluate the opinions of dental clinic students regarding the challenges of endodontic therapy and compare their responses based on their academic years.
Methods: A survey was prepared to evaluate the difficulties experienced by students regarding anesthesia, taking radiographs, use of rubber dam, cavity preparation, identifying radiographic apex, instrumentation, irrigation, intracanal medicament application, root canal filling, and temporary restoration procedures. The survey, consisting of 13 main questions (with yes/no answers) and 13 sub-questions (multiple choice), was responded to by 60 fourth-year and 60 fifth-year dentistry students. The Pearson Chi-Square and Fisher’s Exact tests were applied to evaluate the students’ answers according to their academic years.
Results: Taking radiographs, determining the master cone, and filling the root canal were the most challenging endodontic procedures. There was a statistically significant difference between the responses of fourth- and fifth-year students to the main questions regarding root canal filling and access cavity preparation (p<0.05).
Conclusion: During training, more emphasis should be placed on taking radiographs, identifying the master cone, and filling the root canals. Fifth-year students performing endodontic treatment of anatomically difficult cases were found to have less self-efficacy in filling root canals and preparing the endodontic access cavity.