Role of endodontics in current dental practice.

The findings presented in this statistical study are applicable to a representative sample of dentists in general practice in Illinois. Almost 90% of the respondents in this survey do some or all of their root canal therapy. The majority of those who do some or all of their root canal therapy do so because they enjoy it. Most of the respondents (77.3%) do not take root canal cultures. Kerr's Root Canal Sealer is the most widely used sealer, followed by Kerr's Tubli-Seal and Dr. Wach's sealer, respectively. The preferred technique of filling root canals among the respondents is by means of guttapercha and lateral condensation for most canals and the use of silver points for narrow or constricted canals. A technique that is not taught in any American dental school, the Sargenti N2 technique, is used by almost 20% of the responding dentists. Most of the respondents try to fill the canal 0.5 to 1 mm from the apex. Although dozens of intracanal medicaments exist, the most commonly used one is camphorated parachlorophenol, which is used by more than 50% of the dentists who participated in this survey. A chelating agent is used by almost two fifths of the dentists surveyed and use of such an agent is increasing. More than half the respondents carry out some sort of endodontic surgery in their practice' apicoectomy is the most common endodontic surgery performed. The data show that 48.9% of the dentists who participated in this survey feel that dental schools should devote more time to teaching endodontics, 50.5% believe that the amount of time should remain the same, and only 0.5% feel that the amount of time should be decreased. About 70% of those who feel that the amount of time for teaching endodontics should be increased specified an increase in clinical training.