Single-visit root canal treatment was first documented in 1887. The controversy and debate within the dental community has been ongoing for over a century without resolution. The concept of evidence-based health practice has provided a structure on which the clinically-relevant questions in this debate can be dealt with systematically. When clinicians are faced with choices of which treatment regimen should be offered to patients, the central issues that should be considered are effectiveness, complications, patient/operator preference/satisfaction, and cost. Systematic review and meta-analysis techniques were used to reach definitive conclusions where high quality primary studies are available. The issue of satisfaction was studied using a quality of life concept, while the issue of cost was addressed by an economic evaluation (cost-minimization analysis). Treatment effectiveness and complications of single- and multiple-visit approach were similar. Patients overwhelmingly preferred single- over multiple-visit treatment with high satisfaction scores for both regimens. Australian endodontists were reluctant to embrace single-visit root canal treatment. Single-visit root canal treatment costs society less than multiple-visit treatment. On balance single-visit treatment offers substantial advantages with no identified adverse effects.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/245148 |
| Date | January 2008 |
| Creators | Sathorn, Chankhrit |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | Terms and Conditions: Copyright in works deposited in the University of Melbourne Eprints Repository (UMER) is retained by the copyright owner. The work may not be altered without permission from the copyright owner. Readers may only, download, print, and save electronic copies of whole works for their own personal non-commercial use. Any use that exceeds these limits requires permission from the copyright owner. Attribution is essential when quoting or paraphrasing from these works., Open Access |
Page generated in 0.0017 seconds