Background Fracture of endodontic instruments during routine root canal treatment and retreatment procedures has high prevalence. This unfortunate mishap requires certain expertise to diagnose and manage without any further complications.Objectives The objective of the present questionnaire study was to assess the knowledge of the clinician to diagnose an instrument separation during routine endodontic procedure and the steps carried out to manage this unfortunate mishap.Methods An online questionnaire comprising of 26 questions was circulated on social media groups to be filled by undergraduate postgraduate students practicing dental surgeons and specialists. All the responses were recorded and descriptive analysis of all the variables was done using frequency and proportion for categorical variables and Chi square test was used to compare the proportions. The level of significance was set at p lt0.05.Results The results showed that 75.8 of the participants could diagnose instrument separation. About 73.6 noticed instrument separation in the apical third of the root canals and 48.1 of the separated instruments were found in the mesial root of mandibular molars. Around 59.3 of the respondents opined that the separation was because of over usage of the instruments. 61.3 of them could bypass and complete obturation. Multiple visits were preferred for the management of separated instrument by 68.9 of the respondents.Conclusion Within the limitations of the study we conclude that most clinicians could diagnose the instrument separation and manage it by either removing or bypassing the instrument.
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