Assessing Difficulty and Prevalance of Complex Endodontic Treatments
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Development of new computerised tool for assessing the difficulty and prevalence of complex endodontic treatments.
IRAS ID
181673
Contact name
Edward Liam Boyle
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Liverpool University
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 3 months, 2 days
Research summary
The need for root canal (endodontic) treatment in dental care is an established knowledge in the literature. In a study in 2003, there was substantial perceived need for referring endodontic cases to an "endodontic specialist". In order to improve the success rate for root canal treatment in general dental practice, the referral of difficult cases to an experienced specialist should be made possible for the best interest of the patient.
In order to be able to refer difficult cases appropriately, two requirements need to be satisfied:
• Dentists need to be able to predictably identify cases with higher difficulties and treat or refer to the appropriate performer.
• There needs to be a sufficient number of endodontic “specialists” or dentists with further advanced skills in endodontics.
This research aims to design a computerised friendly and time-efficient tool in order to allow dentists to identify the degree of difficulty of root canal treatment. In addition, from a public health point of view, there have been no studies conducted to determine the prevalence of complex endodontic treatments in general dental practices or the level of complexity and degree of expertise required. This makes it very difficult to estimate the number of specialists required within the health system.
A cross-sectional survey is planned to study the prevalence of complex endodontic treatments in general practice. This is done by sending the tool to a suitable number of dentists, ask questions of how difficult they find the root canal procedure when treatment was offered. All data collected concern the treatment itself and no patient identifiable information is involved. No further data is required other than the ones recorded in normal care and obviously no adjustments are required to the treatment. This may allow estimating the estimating the endodontic need within the health system.REC name
North East - Newcastle & North Tyneside 1 Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
15/NE/0372
Date of REC Opinion
30 Oct 2015
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion