MATERIALS AND METHODS Following the approval of the institutional review board, anonymous survey forms, were handed to out to 48 senior year dental students enrolled in Yeditepe University, Faculty of Dentistry. Prior to the study, students were informed that they were not held obliged to complete selleckchem Erlotinib and return the forms and completion of the survey would have no influence on their overall academic grading or performance. Following some demographic information such as age and gender, the students were asked to score some endodontic procedures with different diagnosis, different steps of endodontic treatment as well as types of teeth according to their self-confidence levels. The students used the Lickert’s scoring system from 1-5 to indicate their level of confidence as follows: 1 = Very little confidence, 2 = Little confidence 3 = Neutral 4 = Confident 5 = Very confident.

The survey continued with questions regarding students�� opinion about future endodontic practice while working independently, whether they wish to carry out all endodontic procedures by themselves or whether they would seek for the assistance of a specialist in case they felt necessary. Students were also asked to share the most adverse experience they encountered during endodontic practice so far, if any. They were also asked to pick among some choices regarding the most significant innovation introduced into the science of endodontology that would increase practitioners�� performance in recent years. In the dental school where the study was conducted, students are held obliged to complete approximately 30 root canal treatments during their clinical years in order to be eligible for graduation.

This number is dispersed between the clinical years, starting with a lower number of root canal treatments in the 3rd year, gradually increasing until the senior year. During the survey, they were also inquired about their opinion regarding whether this required number was satisfactory. If case students felt that it wasn’t, they were asked to indicate the minimum number that they thought would be satisfactory to gain adequate proficiency. The survey was completed with a question which asked whether students wished to specialize in the branch of endodontology and additional comments. RESULTS Among the 48 students who were handed out the survey, 42 (88%) returned the forms. Twenty-five students (59.5%) were females whereas 17 (40.5%) were males. The majority (42.9%) of the students rated endodontics AV-951 as 3rd in terms of difficulty [Table 1] among other branches. 11.9% of the students expressed endodontics as the first branch in terms of difficulty.