Abstract
Objectives:
The aim of this article is to evaluate attitude among dental practitioners in Erbil/Iraq toward the use of hand and rotary endodontic instruments and to evaluate whether there is any relation regarding the preference in using a specific type of instrument with the level of specialization and clinical practice when performing root canal treatments (RCTs).
Materials and Methods:
It was a cross-sectional questionnaire study conducted in Erbil, Iraq. A total of 111 dentists participated in this study; data regarding the information about demographic details of dental professionals, years of experience, and number of RCTs done per week by dental professionals were obtained. The use of rotary and hand instruments by dental professionals was inquired. Procedural problems with rotary instruments faced by dental professionals and reasons for not using the rotary instruments if any were also recorded. The data were submitted to descriptive analysis, and associations were tested with χ2 test and Fisher's exact test using SPSS software version 23. P-value was set as <0.05.
Results:
Forty-four (39.6%) of the total study samples used both rotary and hand instruments, whereas 25 (22.5%) of them used only rotary instruments for RCTs. Dentists who were using rotary instruments are facing the procedural problems of file fracture [74 (66.7%)] and those dental professionals using hand instruments are facing the procedural problems of ledge formations [55 (49.5%)]. There was no significant relationship between using a specific type of instrument and the level of specializations (P = 0.941).
Conclusion:
In conclusion, the results of this study showed that dentists preferred using both rotary and hand endodontic instruments for RCTs with no significant relation with the level of specialization regarding using specific types of instruments, and dentists experienced some procedure errors regarding both types of instruments while using them for RCTs.