Radiographic Assessment of Quality of Root Canal Treatment

Root canal treatment quality has a direct bearing on healing in the periradicular area. There are various methods to assess the quality of root canal treatment. Radiographic assessment in conjunction with clinical assessment remains one of the most commonly employed methods to predict the prognosis of endodontically treated teeth. The objective of this study was to assess the quality of root canal treatments of patients, reporting to outdoor clinics of a dental college. It was a cross sectional study carried out over a period of six months. A total of 248 patients, with at least one endodontically treated tooth, reporting to the outdoor clinics of Lahore Medical and Dental College were included in the study. Quality of root canal treatment was assessed radio graphically. A predetermined criterion, based on length and lateral seal of the root filling already used in earlier studies, was employed. The technical quality of root canal treatment was assessed to be adequate in 52.4% of the observed cases which is in contrast to the high percentages of reported success rates for this modality.