Danish practitioners' assessment of factors influencing the outcome of endodontic treatment

Objective. This investigation explored the hypothesis that among general dental practitioners (GDPs), the performance of root fillings of substandard quality might be associated with deficient knowledge of factors important to the outcome of endodontic treatment. Study design. A questionnaire was mailed to 600 randomly selected GDPs. The influence of 24 factors on treatment outcome was assessed on 100 mm visual analog scales. A gold standard (GS) was established by an external group of researchers. Comparisons between the GDP response and the GS were analyzed using Wilcoxon tests. Results. Despite large variation, the responses were significantly associated with sex, year of education, and exposure to endodontic treatment. Compared with the GS, the GDPs emphasized factors associated with clinical symptoms and underevaluated factors related to the microbial situation in the root canal. Conclusions. The GDPs seemed to regard endodontics mainly to be a procedure to keep a patient free of symptoms.