Confidence in Performing Endodontic Treatment and Perception of the Quality of Endodontic Education

Undergraduate endodontic education has experienced considerable variations in current years, inspired by variations in knowledge, methods, and materials as well as educational styles. It appears that the extra root canal treatments students operate on patients, the better their self‐efficacy is at graduation. Nevertheless, treating difficult cases may decrease their self‐efficacy and confidence. This is a cross-sectional study conducted among dental students in Riyadh using an online survey. Dental universities in Riyadh were contacted and participants were requested to fill up the survey. 500 students from clinical levels were utilized in this study. 73.1% of students reported the time spent on endodontic education being adequate, 69.5% considered the quality of lectures to be good and 23.2% reported that the lab's sessions do not have enough time. Statistically significant comparisons were observed when inquired about gender’s confidence in performing anterior RCT (p-value: .001), performing posterior RCT (p-value: .009), determining the restorability of the tooth (p-value: .001) Overall, the students are satisfied with the quality of endodontic education. However, the confidence levels are slightly above average, which does not complement their satisfaction from endodontic education.

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