Causes of endodontic treatment failure - a study

ABSTRACT

The aim of this study was to determine different causes of endodontic treatment failure in patients who approached the Department of Operative Dentistry, Khyber College of Dentistry, Peshawar, for re-treatment. This study was carried out from December 2009 to February 2010 and included seventy five patients of both genders with different post endodontic treatment complaints. Clinical and radio-graphic examination was used to confirm treatment failure. The most common clinical symptoms were tenderness, tenderness and pain, or swelling [72%, 29.3% and 22.7% respectively]. The common causes of endodontic treatment failure were poorly filled [40%], under filled [34.7%] and no root canal filling [17.3%]. Root canal failure due to overfilling was 5.3%. Most of these failed cases were either treated by internees [House officers] in the teaching institutes [34.7%] or general dental practitioners [57.3%]