Perception of RCT in Patents With and Without Previous Experience

Objectives: To assess and compare patient’s feelings just before and immediately after completion of root canal treatment in a group of patients with and without previous experience.Methods:  A modified self-completed questionnaire based on the Endodontic Patient profile questionnaire (EPPQ) developed by Gorduysus and Gorduysus (2000). The questionnaire consists of five groups of questions and was given to systematic randomly selected non-emergency patients in good health who were16 years old and above. Results : In all 1500 patients were surveyed, out of which 485 (32.3%) had previous root canal treatment (RCT). The majority of those who had previous RCT experience 290 (59.8%) were in the age range 21-35 years, while the majority of those who had never experienced RCT 615 (60.6%) were in the age range 36-50 years. There was no statistically significant difference in the level of education of patients with and without previous RCT (P > 0.05). The majority of those patients having RCT for the first time were tense and anticipated a painful procedure; the differences were statistically significant (p < 0.001). Before RCT 254 (52.4%) of patients without previous RCT would have preferred extraction, after the treatment, this was reduced to only 53 (10.9%). On completion of the RCT 1,255 (83.7%) patients reported that the treatment was not as painful as expected. In all 95.6% would be willing to have another ET and recommend the treatment to someone else.Conclusions: Root canal treatment is less popular than dental extraction among Nigerian patients; the treatment was not as painful as anticipated by patients. On completion of treatment, more patients were in favour of endodontic treatment than extraction.