Quality of Root Canal Fillings Performed by Undergraduate Dental Students in the School of Dentistry, University of Sulaimani

Abstract

Objective: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the quality of root fillings using radiographs of teeth treated by undergraduate dental students at a dental teaching center in School of Dentistry, University of Sulaimani. Methods and Materials: A random sample of records of patients who had received endodontic treatment by 5th year undergraduate students at the School of Dentistry, Sulaimani University during the period of 2014to 2015 were evaluated by two investigators (and in case of disagreement by a third investigator) regarding the presence or absence of short fillings, over fillings and perforations. For each tooth, preoperative, working and postoperative radiographs were checked. Statistical analysis of the data was carried out using statistical package for the social sciences (SPSS 12.0, SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA) with Chi-square test. P < 0.05 was considered as significant.Results: From 184 cases 28.3% was acceptable and 71.7% was unacceptable, under-filled teeth was 32.6% and over-filled was 23.9%,adequate fillings were found more in maxillary than mandibular teeth (P < 0.005), anterior were more accepted compared to posterior teeth (P < 0.05) Conclusion: The technical quality of root canal treatment performed by undergraduate dental students using step-back preparation and lateral condensation was found to be less than 50%.