An investigation into security, self-confidence and gender differences related to undergraduate education in Endodontics.

AIM

To analyse responses from dental practitioners (DPs) on how secure they felt as a newly graduated dentist, level of confidence or self-efficacy when performing root canal treatment (RCT), and if undergraduate (UG) education in Endodontics adequately met their needs in a dental practice.

METHODOLOGY

An electronic questionnaire was sent to 459 dentists who graduated from the University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway, between 2008 and 2018. The survey consisted of questions with closed-end options and Likert scale (1-5). An open-ended free text option was always provided.

RESULTS

A total of 314 (68.4%) DPs answered the questionnaire. Of these, 87 (27.8%) were men and 224 (71.3%) were women. Three respondents did not disclose their gender. As a newly graduated dentist, 37.3% of the respondents felt secure when performing RCT, 30.7% felt indifferent, and 32.0% felt insecure. The majority (72.4%) of respondents were either confident or very confident when performing RCT, 21.3% were indifferent, and 6.3% had little or no confidence. A majority of DPs (84.4%) self-evaluated the quality of their root fillings as good or very good, and 15.2% were indifferent. Only one DP selected 'not good' and none selected 'bad'. There were significant gender differences where male DPs felt more secure than female DPs when performing RCT (P < 0.001). A significantly larger number of men were very confident compared to women (P < 0.001). A logistic regression analysis using confidence as a dependent variable to predict self-efficacy revealed that DPs who felt secure when performing RCT as a newly graduated dentist had about 8 times more self-efficacy (odds ratio = 8.49) than those who were insecure or indifferent. Respondents who rated their quality of root fillings as good or very good had forty times more self-efficacy (odds ratio = 40.06) when performing RCT. UG education in endodontics was considered inadequate by 71.3% of the respondents where a significantly larger number of DPs (70%) wanted more clinical training (P < 0.05). About half the DPs (47.7%) stated that there was a need for lifelong learning with majority preferring hands-on courses and continuing dental education organized by dental associations.

CONCLUSIONS

The results of this study suggest that there is a need to promote self-efficacy during UG education in Endodontics. Hands-on training is the preferred form of lifelong learning for DPs.