Clinical Undergraduate Endodontic Teaching in King Saud University: Student’s Experience, Perception, and Self-Confidence Levels

Aim: To investigate King Saud University undergraduate dental students' clinical experiences, their perceptions of the current endodontic practice, and their self-rated confidence levels in a range of expected competencies. Materials and methods: Surveys' forms were distributed to the 125 fourth-year and 120 fifth-year dental students (Male and female) enrolled in the Faculty of Dentistry in 2017-2018, at King Saud University. An 8-question survey was distributed manually and electronically. The first section covered demographic details, while the remainder of the questionnaire assessed the students' experiences regarding nonsurgical root canal treatment, including difficulties faced in their clinical training in this field, their self-rated levels of confidence in carrying out various endodontic tasks and their career intentions about endodontic practice once graduated. Levels of confidence with respect to a range of basic endodontic treatment were explored using Likert scale. Chi-square test and proportional t-test were used for individual and multi response analysis (p<0.05). Results: The overall response rate was 63%. Molar teeth listed as the most difficult teeth to treat. Fear of doing mishaps, anatomical variations, patients' factors, access cavity preparation, root morphology, and pulpal factors were the main difficulties faced by the undergraduate students. Half of the students found endodontics ‘difficult' or ‘more difficult' comparable with other branches. Percentage of students who would not consider specializing in endodontics was 25.3% among the fourth-year students, and 50% among the fifth-year students. Students' perception on some suggestions to improve clinical undergraduate endodontic learning was mainly improving the student-instructor relationship, the introduction of new techniques, and more clinical and preclinical training. Comparable results were found between the two educational level groups where they felt confident in most of the basic endodontic clinical procedures, without statistical significant difference between them. However, relatively lower confidence levels were noted in both groups regarding finding all canals in multi rooted teeth. Conclusions: Fourth-year and fifth-year undergraduate dental students displayed confidence in carrying out basic endodontic skills but reported lower confidence and more difficulty in less experienced and more complicated procedures.