(PR77) Single Cone Obturation Technique Utilization in U.S.- and Canada-Based Pre-doctoral Endodontic Programs

Objective: Historically, pre-doctoral endodontic programs have taught cold lateral condensation as the technique of choice for obturation despite the growing body of evidence for high-quality outcomes of other techniques, such as single cone obturation. Recently, only a few pre-doctoral programs have moved on from cold lateral as the technique of choice. The main purpose of this survey is to assess the degree to which single cone has been adopted by pre-doctoral endodontic programs throughout the US and Canada. Experimental

Methods: An anonymous Qualtrics survey was emailed to 72 pre-doctoral endodontic programs throughout the US and Canada. In addition to asking whether the program utilized single cone technique, other questions included reasons why or why not, if they would incorporate it in the future, and other free response questions.

Results: Of the 51 pre-doctoral programs surveyed, 16 (31%) reported utilizing single cone and 35 (69%) did not. Of the 35 programs who do not use single cone, 32 (94%) have no plans to incorporate it soon, while 2 (6%) programs do have plans to incorporate it (1 program did not answer this question). Common arguments against single cone included lack of supporting research (36%) and retreatability issues (19%).

Conclusion: The data from this survey shows a strong preference among pre-doctoral programs for other techniques over single cone. Additionally, almost none of the programs that refuse to use single cone are planning on adopting it anytime soon, indicating an uphill battle against perception to overcome for single cone adoption.