The Factors Responsible for Endodontic Treatment Failure in the Permanent Dentitions of the Patients Reported to the College of Dentistry, the University of Aljouf, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

INTRODUCTION: The endodontic failure is a common problem in dentistry. The success of endodontic and re-endodontic treatment depends on many factors. These includes periodontal disease, root fractures, residual necrotic pulp tissue, presence of peri-radicular infection, broken instruments, mechanical perforations, root canal underfillings, root canal overfillings, missed canals or unfilled canals. AIM: The present research was aimed at evaluating the different factors responsible for endodontic treatment failure in permanent dentitions of the patients.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: In the present in vivo cross-sectional study, 90 patients, who reported in endodontic section of Department of Conservative Dentistry, with post endodontic treatment pain, tenderness to percussion, swelling and sinus tract in their permanent dentitions were considered as endodontic failure cases, and were considered for endodontic re-treatment. The teeth with vertical root fracture and badly broken down unrestorable teeth were excluded from the present study. The study subjects were divided into three groups on the basis of their age. Informed consent was taken from the study subjects and the approval was taken for this study from the college ethical committee.
RESULTS: The results were obtained as frequencies and percentages after analysing the collected informations by using SPSS version 10 computer soft ware. The majority of the endodontic failures were noted in the age group III (41.11%) and minimum endodontic failures were found in the age group I (24.44%). According to the tooth type, the majority of the endodontic failures were noted in maxillary molars (44.4%), mandibular molars (20%) and maxillary premolars (15.5%). The endodontic treatment performed by the general dental practitioners (GDPs) showed the most failure rate (78.8%). The factors which were most responsible for endodontic failures were underfilled canals (33.3%), unfilled and missed canals (17.7%).
CONCLUSION: This study concluded that endodontic failures are more related with the lack of knowledge on the part of the operator, complex anatomy of the teeth involved and lack of referral of such patients to the specialists.