Gbadebo Shakeerah Olaide, Adebayo Gbenga Emmanuel
Department of Restorative Dentistry, Faculty of Dentistry, University College Hospital, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria.
J West Afr Coll Surg. 2023 Jul-Sep;13(3):22-27. doi: 10.4103/jwas.jwas_282_22. Epub 2023 Jun 27.
Root canal treatment (RCT) is a major procedure in dentistry. It aims to relieve the pain of pulpal origin and maintain the affected tooth as a functional unit on the arch. Despite these achievable goals, RCT is sometimes rejected by patients. This study, therefore, sought to assess the reasons for rejection in patients planned for endodontic/RCT.
This was a cross-sectional pilot survey of patients planned for RCT using a self-administered questionnaire. The questionnaire included sociodemographics, the Index for Dental Anxiety and Fear (IDAF-4C), and questions to assess the reasons for rejection of endodontic treatment. Data collected were analysed with IBM Statistical Package for the Social Sciences software program, version 23.0. Descriptive statistics were used; chi-square was used to test the association between categorical variables. Statistical significance was set at ≤ 0.05.
Thirty-one patients between the age range of 16 and 81 years, with a mean age of 38.16 ± 17.87, participated in the survey. Only nine (29.03%) of the participants declined to have the treatment. The majority 6(66.7%), and 7(77.8%) of those that refused the treatment did so, due to fear of drilling ( = 0.014) and cost of treatment ( = 0.001), respectively. Mean IDAF-4C was 1.86 ± 0.9 (standard deviation).The rejection was, however, not affected by past experience, the risk of taking multiple radiographs, and the number of hours or visits for the procedure.
The cost of treatment and fear of drilling were the major reasons for the rejection of RCT in this study. Therefore, there is a need to further look into making endodontic treatment a more comfortable, less costly, and less fear-provoking procedure for patients.
根管治疗（RCT）是牙科的一项主要治疗手段。其目的是缓解牙髓源性疼痛，并使患牙作为牙弓上的一个功能单位得以保留。尽管有这些可实现的目标，但根管治疗有时会被患者拒绝。因此，本研究旨在评估计划接受牙髓治疗/根管治疗的患者拒绝治疗的原因。
这是一项针对计划接受根管治疗的患者的横断面试点调查，采用自填式问卷。问卷包括社会人口统计学信息、牙科焦虑和恐惧指数（IDAF - 4C），以及评估拒绝牙髓治疗原因的问题。收集的数据使用IBM社会科学统计软件包23.0版进行分析。采用描述性统计；卡方检验用于检验分类变量之间的关联。设定统计学显著性水平为≤0.05。
31名年龄在16至81岁之间的患者参与了调查，平均年龄为38.16±17.87岁。只有9名（29.03%）参与者拒绝接受治疗。拒绝治疗的患者中，大多数分别是因为害怕钻牙（P = 0.014）和治疗费用（P = 0.001）而拒绝，人数分别为6名（66.7%）和7名（77.8%）。IDAF - 4C的平均值为1.86±0.9（标准差）。然而，拒绝治疗并不受既往经历、多次拍摄X光片的风险以及治疗所需的小时数或就诊次数的影响。
治疗费用和害怕钻牙是本研究中患者拒绝根管治疗的主要原因。因此，有必要进一步研究如何使牙髓治疗对患者来说更舒适、成本更低且引发的恐惧更小。
