The endodontic treatment need of this Belgian subpopulation was great and the technical standard of root canal treatment disappointing. The findings indicate that there is still a substantial need for postgraduate endodontic education in Belgium and a need for specialists in endodontology.

The importance of a good coronal restoration, as well as of a good root filling should be emphasized as the technical quality of both influencing the periapical status.

Clinicians should be aware of this unusual root morphology in mandibular first molars in Caucasian people. Radiographs exposed at two different horizontal angles are needed to identify this additional root. The access cavity must be modified in a distolingual direction in order to visualize and treat the RE, this results in a trapezoidal access cavity.

Imaging suggests that the working mechanism of an Er,Cr:YSGG laser in root canal treatment in an irrigation solution can be attributed to cavitation effects inducing high-speed fluid motion into and out the canal.

No abstract

Under the conditions of this study LAI is statistically significantly more effective in removing artificially placed dentin debris in a root canal as PUI and CI.

The insertion of metal objects into intraoral and perioral sites is growing in popularity. However, there are numerous oral and dental complications associated with tongue piercing. Fifteen patients with tongue piercings (pierced in the body of the tongue, anterior to the lingual frenum) attending the dental office of the authors, with and without complaints, were clinically and radiographically examined. The most common dental problem registered was chipping of teeth. Furthermore, two cracked teeth and four teeth with cusp fractures were also seen. One case of selective dental abrasion was registered. Trauma to the lingual anterior gingiva was the most common gingival problem. A salivary flow stimulating effect was only reported by 2 of the 15 individuals. None of the patients complained of interference with speech, mastication and swallowing. One case of galvanic currents produced by the appliance was registered. On the basis of the registered data, we concluded that patients need to be better informed of the potential complications associated with tongue and oral piercings, and that the dental profession can serve this role.

Aim The purpose of this study was to gather information on root canal treatment carried out by dentists working in Flanders (Belgium). Methodology A questionnaire was handed to 312 dentists attending peer review sessions organized by the Flemish Universities. Basic information (age, gender, year of graduation, practice pro¢le) and information on various issues relating to the cleaning and shaping of root canals was collected. Results A total of 310 questionnaires were returned. The majority (85.7%) of respondents categorized themselves as general practitioners; 25.7% mentioned a clinical interest or speciality in practice. Most practitioners (64.5%) did not use rubber dam routinely during root canal treatment and performed treatment over two visits irrespective of the number of root canals. The majority of respondents (82.4%) used sodium hypochlorite as an irrigant, but 10.6% did not know the concentration they used; EDTA was used by 61.6%. The vast majority exposed a radiograph with an instrument of known length in situ to gauge the working length; only 3.6% relied on tactile sense; electronic root canal length determination was seldom used. Amongst the root canal instruments, K-¢les were used solely or in combination with other instruments by 60.3% of the respondents, reamers were used solely or in combination with other instruments by 55.4%. The stepback technique was used by 31.2% of the participants, a combination of stepdown and stepback by 26.4%, a reaming technique by 26.1% and the stepdown technique by 14.7%. The majority were familiar with mechanical root canal instruments. Almost half of the practitioners believed their preparation technique could be improved; only 1.3% felt that their procedures were poor. Conclusions The results of this study indicate that the theoretical knowledge of dentists working in Flanders is good. However, the use of rubber dam remained low, half believed their preparation technique could be improved.