Restorative preferences and choices of dentists and students for restoring endodontically treated teeth: A systematic review of survey studies

Statement of problem. The best protocol to restore endodontically treated teeth is still unclear, with many factors to be considered, including the selection and necessity of a post, the type of corona! restoration, the amount of remaining corona! structure, and the type of luting agent. Purpose. The purpose of this systematic review was to assess the restorative preferences for endodontically treated teeth between dentists and dental students. Material and methods. Survey studies, written in English, of dentists and dental students, which evaluated the use of intracanal posts and other restorative options for endodontically treated teeth, were selected. Searches were performed in the PubMed and SCOPUS databases without time restriction. Screening and data extraction were performed by 2 researchers independently. A standardized outline was used to extract the data (questions related to the theme and the response rate of each question on the survey), and the risk of bias was assessed. Descriptive analysis was performed of the collected information. Results. Twenty-five articles were included. Most dentists who answered the surveys reported the time since graduation as 1 to 20 years (40%), and 44% were specialists. The most reported choices concerning the type of posts used were prefabricated posts (45.8%), cast metal posts (16.7%), and both posts (16.7%). The cast metal posts were cited more frequently in surveys published between 1994 and 2010, whereas prefabricated posts, both metal and glass fiber ones, were cited between 2006 and 2019. The preferred luting agent for intracanal posts was resin-based (47%). These choices seem to have been influenced by time and by the level of postgraduate training. Conclusions. Restorative preferences related to posts have changed over time, from the use of cast posts to prefabricated ones or the use of both posts and seem to be influenced by experience and postgraduate training.