KAP Survey on Endodontic Irrigants and Its Deleterious Effects

Abstract

The aim is to assess how aware the dental students are about endodontic irrigants and the deleterious effect. Successful root canal therapy relies on the combination of proper instrumentation, irrigation, and obturation of the root canal. Of these three essential steps of root canal therapy, irrigation protocol is very important as it determines the healing of the periapical tissues. The primary endodontic treatment goal must thus be to optimize root canal disinfection and to prevent reinfection. Cytotoxicity of root canal irrigants is essential due to their close contact with host tissues. The study aimed to assess how aware the dental students are about the deleterious effects of endodontic irrigants. A cross-sectional study was conducted among dental students in January 2020. The survey was made on the app survey planet and a questionnaire was administered to 100 dental students about their awareness of cytotoxicity of irrigants in endodontics. The data was collected and put into bar charts in SPSS version 20 by IBM for statistical results. It is observed 38% were interns, 33% were final years and 29% were third years. 90% were aware of what irrigants are, 86% were aware of the types of irrigants, 76% were aware of the cytotoxicity of irrigants, 49% used sodium hypochlorite, 21% used chlorhexidine, 10% used MTAD, 8% used citric acid and 12% have used all of the above. 65% are aware of the duration of irrigants in canals. 59% think irrigants can be used in a previously treated tooth, 20% disagree and 21% are not sure. A p-value of 0.000 was obtained which is statistically significant as p<0.05. In vitro cytotoxicity tests are usually carried out for new materials before applying them clinically. These irrigating solutions should be used at lower concentrations to enhance cell viability and protect the tissues from toxicity damage, irrespective of their increased efficacy at higher concentrations. Through this study, it was evident that students are not fully aware of the deleterious effects of endodontic irrigants though they are used daily. The awareness of the concentration and type of irrigant to be used should be more emphasized during theory classes so that the same can be followed during clinical procedures.