Technical aspects of endodontic treatment procedures among Lithuanian general dental practitioners.

OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to gather information about the various aspects, technical and biological, of endodontic treatment as performed by Lithuanian general dental practitioners and to compare their choices with established endodontic treatment standards of undergraduate education. MATERIALS AND METHODS Questionnaires were sent to all 2,850 Lithuanian dental practitioners. The structured questionnaire included inquiries about gender, duration of professional activity, working environment, details about instruments and materials. RESULTS From total 1532 (53.8%) questionnaires were returned. Only responses from general dental practitioners (1431) were included. Of the respondents 66% never used a rubber dam. Most practitioners relied on conventional stainless steel instruments. The NiTi hand files were often and routinely used by 32.2% of the respondents. Sodium hypochlorite was the most popular choice as a root canal irrigant. Calcium hydroxide paste was used as an inter-appointment medicament. Cold-lateral condensation root filling method was used by 72.8% of the respondents while 15.6% used a paste for the root filling. CONCLUSIONS The results of this study indicate that the recently graduated dental practitioners were following the recommended standard of endodontic treatment better than those with a longer time from the graduation. It is important to improve the quality of existing courses of continuous education in endodontology in order to ensure the necessary competency in clinical practice. The low use of a rubber dam and low adoption of new technologies in Lithuania is not acceptable and needs to be changed.