Prevalence of technical errors and periapical lesions in a sample of endodontically treated teeth: a CBCT analysis
Abstract
Objectives
The
aims of this study are to identify the most frequent technical errors
in endodontically treated teeth and to determine which root canals were
most often associated with those errors, as well as to relate endodontic
technical errors and the presence of coronal restorations with
periapical status by means of cone-beam computed tomography images.
Methods
Six
hundred eighteen endodontically treated teeth (1146 root canals) were
evaluated for the quality of their endodontic treatment and for the
presence of coronal restorations and periapical lesions. Each root canal
was classified according to dental groups, and the endodontic technical
errors were recorded. Chi-square’s test and descriptive analyses were
performed.
Results
Six
hundred eighty root canals (59.3%) had periapical lesions. Maxillary
molars and anterior teeth showed higher prevalence of periapical lesions
(p < 0.05). Endodontic treatment quality and coronal restoration were associated with periapical status (p < 0.05).
Underfilling was the most frequent technical error in all root canals,
except for the second mesiobuccal root canal of maxillary molars and the
distobuccal root canal of mandibular molars, which were non-filled in
78.4 and 30% of the cases, respectively.
Conclusions
There
is a high prevalence of apical radiolucencies, which increased in the
presence of poor coronal restorations, endodontic technical errors, and
when both conditions were concomitant. Underfilling was the most
frequent technical error, followed by non-homogeneous and non-filled
canals.
Clinical relevance
Evaluation
of endodontic treatment quality that considers every single root canal
aims on warning dental practitioners of the prevalence of technical
errors that could be avoided with careful treatment planning and
execution.
Comments