Radiographic assessment of endodontic accidents at a Nigerian tertiary health institution: a one-year retrospective study

Introduction: Dental treatment can produce iatrogenic injury to the tooth with endodontic procedural errors occurring during the various stages of endodontic treatment. This study determined the prevalence and pattern of endodontic accidents in clinical practice at a tertiary health center in Nigeria. Methodology: This was a retrospective study of teeth treated with conventional hand-held file systems. Digital peri-apical working length, pre-obturation and post obturation radiographic images of teeth which received root canal treatment, were assessed for the presence or absence of errors. All errors present were recorded and data analysis was done using IBM SPSS version 22.0. Results: The prevalence of procedural errors was 31.3% with ledges being the most prevalent error followed by transportation while gouging was the least encountered error. Majority (83.8%) of the errors occurred during root canal instrumentation. A higher proportion of molars had errors compared to the other types of teeth with the prevalence of errors increasing from incisors to premolars and then to molar teeth. The mandibular molars were found to be most frequently involved in procedural errors. Conclusion: The prevalence of procedural errors seems high. Practitioners should show greater care during the canal preparation stage and to maintain the accuracy of the working length throughout the procedure, as errors which occur during canal preparation accounted for the vast majority of errors seen in this study. Special care should be taken when working on molars, which had a significantly higher error rate when compared to anterior teeth or premolars

Self-reported prevalence of missing teeth and unmet prosthetic treatment needs among a population of Nigerian undergraduate students

Background: Tooth loss is an indicator of the oral health status of the population. In developing countries, missing tooth/teeth replacement constitutes a high unmet dental need. Missing tooth/teeth among undergraduate student is a cause for concern. Objective: This study was designed to assess the self-reported prevalence of missing teeth and unmet prosthetic needs among university undergraduate students. Methods: Data for the study was collected by means of a self-administered questionnaire. The questionnaire consisted of 3 sections: the first section sought demographic information, the second section consisted of 5 questions that tried to find out the missing teeth status of the respondents and the third section tried to find out prevalence of missing teeth and the unmet prosthetic needs of the respondents. Data obtained was analyzed using IBM SPSS version 21.0. Descriptive statistics (frequencies and counts), cross-tabulations as well as Chi square were used to analyze the data. Result: More than half (64.1%) were females while 67.3% were between 16 and21 years of age. The prevalence of missing teeth among the respondents was 38.3% with missing anterior teeth making up 56.1%. Of the respondents who had missing teeth 60.5% had a form of replacement for their missing teeth bringing the unmet prosthetic need to 39.5%. There was a statistically significant association between tooth missing and replacement status with a higher proportion (66.3%) of anterior teeth being replaced. There was no statistically significant association between missing teeth and gender, age group, marital status, faculty of study and level of study. Conclusion: The prevalence of missing teeth and unmet prosthetic need was high, highlighting the need for oral health education and increased awareness of the possible prosthetic rehabilitation procedures available for replacing missing teeth