Difficulty levels of extracted human teeth used for pre‐clinical training in endodontics in an Australian dental school

• Published in: Australian endodontic journal Vol. 46; no. 1; pp. 47 - 51
• Main Authors: Decurcio, Daniel A., Lim, Eeling, Nagendrababu, Venkateshbabu, Estrela, Carlos, Rossi‐Fedele, Giampiero
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Australia Wiley Subscription Services, Inc 01.04.2020
• Subjects: Australia; dental education; dental students; Dentistry; Endodontics; Humans; Molars; Radiography; Root Canal Therapy; Schools, Dental; Students, Dental; teaching; Teeth; Australia; endodontics; dental education; dental students; teaching; root canal therapy
• ISSN: 1329-1947; 1747-4477
• DOI: 10.1111/aej.12355

This study aimed to determine the difficulty level of extracted teeth treated by undergraduate students for pre‐clinical endodontic training. Two independent observers assessed a consecutive sample of 1000 periapical radiographs of extracted teeth used in endodontic pre‐clinical training. Chi‐square test was used to evaluate the adjustment of the distribution, and inter‐ and intra‐examiner agreement were calculated. Minimal, moderate and high difficulty teeth represented 23.1%, 52.1% and 24.8%, respectively. The presence of curvature was the most common grading factor, with ‘moderate curvature’ reported in 28.7%, and ‘extreme curvature’ reported in 15.6% of the sample. A difference in the distribution of frequencies was found, favouring the moderate category (P < 0.001). The inter‐ and intra‐examiner strength of agreement were 0.78 and 0.86, respectively. More than 50% of the teeth were categorised as moderate complexity. Almost one‐quarter of the total sample, in particular molars, was classified as high complexity, thus unsuitable for undergraduate pre‐clinical training.