Comparison of Separation of Manual and Rotary Files during Endodontic Treatment: A KAP Survey

OBJECTIVE: To determine the frequency of manual and rotary instrument separation during endodontic treatment amongst experienced dental practitioners and house surgeons. METHODOLOGY: The present study was conducted in various dental teaching hospitals registered with Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) from July 2018 to January 2019. The sample size calculation was obtained by taking 50% prevalence rate using Open EPI software (version 3.01) at 95% confidence interval and alpha=5% and was calculated to be 250. A self-administered questionnaire containing 22 closed ended questions was designed to evaluate different reasons of separation of manual and rotary endodontic instruments amongst experienced dental practitioners and house surgeons. RESULTS: A total of 250 participants were included in this study, out of them 192 were house officers and 58 were dental practitioners.122 (63.5%) of the house surgeons and 30(51.7%) of dental practitioners experienced instruments breakage during root canal treatment. When the types of files were assessed, the results showed that the separation of K-files was most frequent than H-files and Ni-Ti rotary files.106(55.2%) of the house surgeons and 23(39.7%) of the dental practitioners reported separation of K-files during root canal treatment. CONCLUSION: The present study concluded that majority of the house surgeons experienced K-file separation than H-file and Ni-Ti rotary files than Dental practitioners during root canal treatment.