Evaluation of dentists' perception levels related to the removal of canal instruments broken in root canals; survey study

Objective: The aim of this study is to determine how often dentists in Turkey break the root canal instrument during root canal treatment. In addition, it is aimed to evaluate how dentists manage this complication. Method: Questionnaire consisting of 23 questions was sent to dentists via e-mail and social media. 325 dentists responded to the survey. In the first part of the questionnaire, there are 5 demographic questions. In the second part, there are 18 questions about the root canal files when used during root canal shaping, breaking and removing with these root canal files. Statistical analysis of the data was calculated by the IBM SPSS Statistics 22.0 software program. A "p" value of <0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: 39.7% of the dentists who participated in our study stated that the frequency of instrument breaking in root canals was less than once a month. Most of the dentists (44.6%) answer as the reason for instrument fracture; increasing the number of use of canal files. When the instrument broke in the root canal, it was seen that the majority of the participants (66.8%) tried to remove the broken instrument or by-pass it, and if they were not successful, they completed the filling of the canal and followed the tooth. It was learned that 42.8% of the participants did not use any system to remove the broken file, and 33.5% used an ultrasonic system. It was observed that the majority of the participants (61.8%) did not use any augmentation system during the instrument removal process. Conclusion: Although the majority of dentists tried to remove or bypass the broken instrument, it was observed that most of them did not use specially produced instruments and enlargement systems during instrument removal. However, not use to these systems may result in failure of the broken instrument removal. Education about these subjects can be better that dentists skill more successful results in removing broken instruments.