Adoption of endodontic rotary nickel-titanium instrumentation by Nigerian dental practitioners

Abstract

Objective: To assess the knowledge Nigerian Dental Practitioners (across different cadres) have of rotary endodontics, to investigate the adoption of Nickel-Titanium (NiTi) rotary instrumentation among specialists and other dental practitioners and to determine the factors associated with avoidance of this adoption.

Methods: This study was conducted through the distribution of structured self-administered questionnaires to randomly selected dental surgeons and endodontists in Nigerian government institutions and private practices. Chi-square, Fisher’s exact tests and Logistic regression analysis were used to examine differences between groups. Statistical significance level was set at p???0.05.

Results:  A total of 240 dental practitioners were surveyed in this study. Only 55 (28.6%) of the respondents had previously used a rotary endodontic system. The most cited reason for not using NiTi rotary instrumentation for root canal preparation among the respondents was unavailability of endomotor and NiTi rotary files 9(96;70.1%) followed by inadequate knowledge about the rotary endodontic practice (37;27.0%). Consultants (OR =5.051; CI =1.431-45.811) and those that had practiced dentistry for >10 years (OR =4.255; CI= 0.849-21.323) were significantly more likely to use and to have good knowledge about rotary endodontics than other respondents. (p< 0.05)

Conclusion: Our study revealed a low rate of adoption of NiTi rotary endodontic technology among dental surgeons in Nigeria and the most commonly cited reason for this was cost of armamentarium as well as inadequate exposure to hands-on-training. A concerted effort is required to improve the uptake and utilization of this technology in our environment.

Keywords: Rotary endodontics