Evaluation and Comparison of Endodontic Errors by Undergraduate Dental Students Trained with and Without the Use of a Head Phantom in Isfahan University of Medical Sciences

Root canal therapy is one of the most important treatments for oral and dental health. To a large extent, the success of treatment is dependent on endodontic treatment errors, and since the treatment errors are affected by the type of dental education, the aim of this study was to compare the prevalence of errors during root canal treatment by students, entering the university in 2010-2012, who were trained with and without the use of a head phantom in the Faculty of Dentistry, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences. In this descriptive-analytical study (historical cohort), 400 records were collected from the students entering the university in 2010, who were trained without a head phantom, and 400 cases related to students entering the university in 2012, who were trained with a head phantom. The records were first coded by one of the members of the admission department and then examined by two researchers for the root canal errors during the stages of access cavity preparation, root canal preparation and obturation of the root canals. These errors were collected in a double-blind manner and analyzed with SPSS 20, using Chi-squared test. Statistical significance was set at p value < 0.05. In this study, root canal treatments rendered by dental students of Isfahan University of Medical Sciences were proper in 67.5% of the cases and the prevalence of root canal treatment error was 32.5% among students. The highest frequency of root canal errors among students was related to overfilling (43.9%) and the least error was related to furcal perforation (0.37%). The prevalence of root canal treatment errors among students entering the university in 2010 and 2012 were 41.6% and 24.4%, respectively. The present study showed that the prevalence of endodontic treatment errors by students trained with a head phantom was significantly less than that by those who were trained without a head phantom. Therefore, it can be concluded that the teaching of dental students using head phantoms can reduce root canal treatment errors by students.