NATIONWIDE SURVEY OF CONTEMPORARY PHILOSOPHIES AND TECHNIQUES OF RESTORING ENDODONTICALLY TREATED TEETH

Contemporary endodontic therapy has allowed patients to retain severel y damaged teeth. The restoration of most endodontically treated teeth involves complex and controversial procedures. There is a diversity of opinion about the need for coronoradicular stabilization, and numerou s post systems and techniques have been described. It is not known wha t materials and techniques are most commonly used. To expand the knowl edge of current philosophies and prevailing techniques, a comprehensiv e nationwide survey of 1525 dentists was conducted. Of the 1066 respon dents, 909 (85%) reported restoring more than 30 endodontically treate d teeth per year, and this subset became the focus group of the survey . Board-certified prosthodontists comprised 40% of this group, educati onally qualified prosthodontists 28%, and general dentists 32%. Respon ses to questions were statistically analyzed. Statistical analysis rev ealed that philosophies and techniques varied significantly with the d entist's geographic location, age, specialty status, and dental school faculty status.