Survey of endodontic practice amongst Iranian dentists participating restorative dentistry congress in Shiraz, November 2007

General dental practitioners provide the majority of treatment in Iran. The aim of this study was to gather information on the methods, materials and attitudes employed in root canal treatment by dentists participated in 7th Congress of Iranian Academy of Restorative Dentistry in Shiraz /2007 in order to evaluate the quality of current practice. A questionnaire for this cross-sectional study was designed with the purpose of evaluating the routine endodontic treatment performed by Iranian dentists. The questionnaire made up of 24 questions with multiple-choice answers. Covering subjects are demographic and professional activity, root-canal preparation and instrumentation, choice of irrigants and disinfectants, and choice of obturation techniques. A total of 247 questionnaires (49.4%) were returned. Ninety-one percent of the respondents were general dental practitioners. The results indicate that there are discrepancies between daily practice and academic teaching, especially regarding the use of rubber dam (only 0.9 % report using it as a standard procedure). Most of practitioners used manual instruments manipulated with a filing technique and few used rotary for canal preparation. The majority of the respondents prepared root canals 0.5-1 mm short of the radiographic apex. The first-choice root-canal irrigant was normal saline (55%), followed by sodium hypochlorite. Approximately, 68% used intracanal medications. The most popular obturation technique was cold lateral condensation (90%) with zinc-oxide eugenol as sealer. Most practitioners performed treatment in two visits for teeth with two or more canals. Eighty-four percent of the dentists used radiograph for determining the working length, and only 2.7% used Apex-locator. The survey mentions the importance of continuing dental education for practitioners to update their knowledge.