Modalities of using endodontic nickel-titanium rotary instruments and factors influencing their implementation in dental practice

• Main Authors: Habib, A.A (Author), Madarati, A.A (Author)
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: BioMed Central Ltd. 2018
• Subjects: Adoption; alloy; Alloys; clinical practice; dental device; Dental Instruments; dentist; Dentists; Endodontics; endodontist; Endodontists; equipment design; Equipment Design; general practice; General Practice, Dental; Glide path; human; Humans; Modalities; NiTi; nitinol; Pilot Projects; pilot study; Practice Patterns, Dentists'; questionnaire; Questionnaire; Root canal; Rotary files; Saudi Arabia; Survey; Surveys and Questionnaires; Uptake
• Online Access: View Fulltext in Publisher

 Background: To establish the extent of using nickel titanium rotary instruments (NiTi-RIs), to identify reasons for using / not using NiTi-RIs, to explore usage modalities and to identify factors and measures that can increase implementation of NiTi-RIs in general dental practice. Methods: Two pilot questionnaires were conducted on academic staff members at College of Dentistry, Taibah University, general dentists (GDs) and endodontists to finalise the questionnaire. A sample size was calculated considering the expected and minimum accepted response rates (60 and 48%, respectively) and a 99.9% Confidence Level. The online-questionnaire was sent to 600 GDs and all endodontists (175) working in Saudi Arabia. A reminder was emailed after 10weeks to encourage non-respondents to complete the questionnaire. Responses, were collected and converted into numerical data which were analysed using the Chi-square test (p=0.05). Results: Significantly most respondents (71.9%) used NiTi-RIs (p<0.001); with more endodontists (96.9%) than GDs (60%). Most users (62.5%) had been using NiTi-RIs for More than 3years (p<0001). The trend of using NiTi-RIs increased as participants' experience and the number of root-canal treatments performed per week increased (p=0.021). While most respondents (45.3%) used NiTi-RIs because of faster root-canal preparation, the majority of non-users (85.3%) didn't do so because of high cost. The highest proportion (43.3%) reported better undergraduate education as the most important factor that can significantly increase NiTi-RIs usage. The majority (91.8%) prepared glide-path before using NiTi-RIs; especially with stainless steel hand-files (63.3%). Conclusions: NiTi-RIs are relatively well adopted in Saudi dental practice. However, better education, especially during undergraduate training and lower cost can increase their usage. Overall, clinicians showed good awareness of NiTi-RIs usage aspects which reflected on usage modalities. © 2018 The Author(s).