Nivel de confianza al realizar un tratamiento de conducto y percepción en la calidad de la educación en endodoncia en estudiantes de 4to y 5to año de odontología de la Universidad Finis Terrae, año 2022

Abstract

Endodontic treatment is one of the most difficult dental procedures a dentist faces during clinical practice. A dental student upon graduation is expected to be able to make a good diagnosis, implement an adequate, reasonable, qualified, and safe treatment plan. However, few students feel qualified to perform endodontic treatment after graduation, where there are several variables to consider. In turn, this lack of confidence is closely associated with the students' perception of their university education and the knowledge acquired during the academic years of professional training. Objective: Determine the level of confidence when performing root canal treatment and the perception of the quality of endodontic education in 4th and 5th year dental students at the Finis Terrae University in the year 2022. Material and methods: Descriptive observational, cross-sectional, cross-sectional study. The study sample consisted of 94 students in the 4th and 5th years of dentistry at the Finis Terrae University in the year 2022. Four variables were evaluated: level of confidence when performing root canal treatment, perception of the quality of endodontic education, current year and gender. The study was approved by the Scientific Ethics Committee of the Finis Terrae University. Participants were asked to sign an informed consent form. The instrument used for data collection was a questionnaire developed by J. Davey et al. in the United Kingdom and approved by Cardiff University, which aims to measure students' confidence in performing root canal treatment and their perception of the quality of endodontic education. Since this questionnaire was in English, we used the certified translation made by A. Valdez in the thesis "Confidence in 4th and 5th year dental students when performing uniradicular root canal treatment", validated at the Peruvian University of Applied Sciences. A descriptive statistical analysis was performed using the Software Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS). Results: A 77.3% of the students felt confident when performing uniradicular endodontics, with a median and interquartile range of 6(3), respectively, indicating that most of them felt confident (score >5). When anesthetizing the tooth to be treated, 91.7% of the students felt confident, with a median and interquartile range of 9(3), being this the stage where the greatest confidence was presented. On the other hand, the stage with the least confidence of the students was when placing a post in the root canal and knowing how to use it to retain a restoration, with a median and interquartile range of 4(3), in which only 48.4% of the students felt confident. Regarding the perception on the quality of endodontic education, 63.9% of the students considered "good" (score >5) the amount of time spent on their endodontic training, with a median and interquartile range of 5(3), 80. 4% of the students considered "good" the quality of the practical sessions, with a median and interquartile range of 6(4) and 81.4% of the students considered "good" the quality of the theoretical classes, with a median and interquartile range of 7(4), which indicates that most of them consider the endodontic education good in these 3 aspects. Key words: Confidence, perception, endodontics, students.