General Dental Practitioners' Concept towards Using Radiography and Apex-Locators in Endodontics.
BACKGROUND
Despite being the gold standard as well as a routine technique in endodontics, radiographic working length (WL) determination owns many drawbacks. Electronic apex-locators (EALs) are recommended to complement radiographies. The aim of this study was to evaluate the perceptions of Iranian general dental practitioners (GDPs) towards using radiography and EAL.


METHODS
Three hundred and ninety one GDPs attending the 53(th) Iranian Dental Association Congress completed a questionnaire focusing on the use of radiography and EALs during the various stages of root canal treatment. The data was analyzed with the chi-square test with the level of significance set at 0.05. The results were then calculated as frequencies and percentages.


RESULTS
More than half of the GDPs reported using radiographs as the sole method for WL determination. A total of 30.4% of the practitioners were using the combined approach during root canal therapy of a single-rooted tooth, while 38.9% used this method in multi-rooted teeth. Approximately half of the respondents would not order follow-up radiographies after root canal treatment.


CONCLUSIONS
Radiography continues to be the most common method for WL determination in Iran.
Oral and Dental Diseases Research Center, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran; ; Neuroscience Research Center, Institute of Neuropharmacology, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran;
Maryam
M
Raoof
Oral and Dental Diseases Research Center, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran;
Maryam
M
Heidaripour
Oral and Dental Diseases Research Center, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran;
Arash
A
Shahravan
Oral and Dental Diseases Research Center, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran;
Jahangir
J
Haghani
New York University, College of Dentistry, New York, USA;
Arash
A
Afkham
Oral and Dental Diseases Research Center, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran;
Mahsa
M
Razifar
Instructor, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran.
Sakineh
S
Mohammadizadeh
Apex Locator; Dental Radiography; Dentist; Root Canal Therapy; Working Length