Evaluation of knowledge, attitude and practice of general dentists of Tabriz about recent advances in endodontics at 2010

Abstract

High healing rate is expected when root canal treatment meets optimal technical standards. Endodontic treatments are technically challenging procedures in nature, so if advances in materials and methods are accompanied by adequate education of dentists, the quality of the treatment will be improved. There isnEt any comprehensive study on the knowledge of general dental practitioners in Tabriz about the new advances in endodontic materials and procedures. Therefore, the aim of this study was to retrieve data from a representative sample of dentists practicing in Tabriz regarding Knowledge, attitude and usage of new advances in endodontic materials and procedures. Materials & Methods: A questionnaire addressing the knowledge, attitude and usage of new endodontic advances and the participation in educational classes was designed. The validity and reliability of the questionnaire was checked in a pilot study. Then, the questionnaires were filled out by 170 general dental practitioners selected by simple randomization. Data were collected from respondents. Kendall's tau and Mann-Whitney tests were used to analyze the data; the level of significance was set at 0.05. Results: The response rate was 94%. The dentists had only moderate knowledge about new advances. The attitude of dentists towards new advances was highly positive. However, usage of these new technologies was low to moderate. The participation of dentists in educational courses was low. There was a significant positive correlation between the knowledge and practice level and also between the knowledge and participating in educational courses (p<0.05). There wasnEt any significant correlation between age, clinical practice and the number of root canal treatments in a week and knowledge, attitude, practice, and participation in educational courses (p>0.05). Conclusions: General dental practitioners of Tabriz had only moderate knowledge about new advances, and their attitude towards new advances was highly positive. However, usage of these new technologies was low to moderate. Therefore, there is a great need for educational courses on this issue.