Iqbal Azhar, Karobari Mohmed Isaqali, Shrivastava Deepti, Srivastava Kumar Chandan, Arjumand Bilal, Algarni Hmoud Ali, Alonazi Meshal Aber, Alnasser Muhsen, Khattak Osama, Syed Jamaluddin, Attia Reham Mohmad, Rashed Asma Abubakar, Sultan Sherif El Sayed
Department of Restorative Dentistry, College of Dentistry, Jouf University, Sakaka, Saudi Arabia.
Department of Conservative Dentistry and Endodontics, Saveetha Dental College and Hospital, Saveetha Institute of Medical and Technical Sciences, Saveetha University, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India.
PLoS One. 2025 Jan 7;20(1):e0311391. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0311391. eCollection 2025.
Aim of the current study was to assess the perception, preference, and practice of endodontists and restorative dentists at different locations around the world about dental magnification instruments.
A multicenter, cross-sectional study was ethically approved from the local committee of bioethics. After thorough literature search, a questionnaire was designed and validated. Later, the questionnaire was distributed to 10% (53 participants) of the total planned participants to conduct a pilot study. Based on the feedback from these participants, any ambiguities or discrepancies observed in the items and content of the questionnaire was modified. The questionnaire was assessed for its internal consistency as part of validating the items with Cronbach's alpha of 0.80. The completed questionnaire with an informed consent form for the participant was administered to the endodontists and restorative dentists in three different geographical regions namely MENA (Middle East and Northern Africa), British-Isles, and Indian Sub-continent using WhatsApp through the snowball convenience sampling technique.
Majority of the participants were male (56.5%) and in the age group of 25-35 years (30.3%). About 68.9% were from Indian sub-continent, followed by the British-Isles (16.5%) and the least (14.6%) were from the MENA region. By large, the participants of the present study, strongly agreed that dental magnification devices improved ergonomics, quality of work, and should be considered as standard of care in modern endodontic. Flip-up magnifiers (51.1%) and medium (8x-16x) magnification were preferred by majority of the participants. About 46.3% of specialist reported that they always used devices for all operative and endodontic procedures, especially while locating hidden and canals and negotiating calcified canals. Participants practicing in British-Isles have 2.42 times (P<0.05) higher adequate perception with reference participants in Indian sub-continent. Additionally, participants with fellowship have 2.77 times more (P<0.01) adequate perception with reference to their counterparts with a master's degree.
Most of the participants believe that dental magnification devices enhance the prognosis and quality of treatment of possibly all operative and endodontics procedures. Thus, emphasized on the inclusion of devices in the postgraduate curriculum and signifies the role of continuing dental education for specialist and dental assistant handling devices. However, multicenter studies with larger sample is required for generalizing the results.
本研究旨在评估世界各地不同地区的牙髓病医生和修复牙科医生对牙科放大仪器的认知、偏好及使用情况。
本多中心横断面研究经当地生物伦理委员会伦理批准。在全面检索文献后，设计并验证了一份问卷。随后，将问卷分发给计划参与研究的总人数的10%（53名参与者）进行预试验。根据这些参与者的反馈，对问卷项目和内容中发现的任何模糊或不一致之处进行了修改。作为验证项目的一部分，使用Cronbach's alpha系数为0.80评估问卷的内部一致性。通过WhatsApp应用雪球便利抽样技术，将填写完整并附有参与者知情同意书的问卷发放给中东和北非（MENA）、不列颠群岛和印度次大陆这三个不同地理区域的牙髓病医生和修复牙科医生。
大多数参与者为男性（56.5%），年龄在25 - 35岁之间（30.3%）。约68.9%来自印度次大陆，其次是不列颠群岛（16.5%），来自中东和北非地区的最少（14.6%）。总体而言，如果不考虑具体地区和学历，参与本研究的人员普遍强烈认为牙科放大设备改善了人体工程学、工作质量，应被视为现代牙髓病学的护理标准。大多数参与者更喜欢翻盖式放大镜（51.1%）和中等放大倍数（8倍 - 16倍）放大设备。约46.3%的专科医生报告说他们在所有手术和牙髓治疗程序中都使用设备，特别是在定位隐蔽根管和钙化根管时。在不列颠群岛执业的参与者对牙科放大设备的充分认知程度是印度次大陆参考参与者的2.42倍（P<0.05）。此外，拥有 fellowship学位的参与者对牙科放大设备的充分认知程度是拥有硕士学位同行的2.77倍（P<0.01）。
大多数参与者认为牙科放大设备可改善所有手术和牙髓治疗程序的预后及治疗质量。因此，强调应将此类设备纳入研究生课程，并表明持续牙科教育对专科医生和操作设备的牙科助理的作用。然而，需要进行更大样本量的多中心研究来推广这些结果。
