Knowledge, attitudes, and practices of undergraduate students concerning Regenerative Endodontics

Knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs of the students are important for the Tissue Engineering in Endodontic practice. The opinion of these future dentists would ultimately will decide the endurance of REPs as routine procedures in endodontic practice. The aim of this study was to perform a survey to identify the knowledge, attitudes, and practices of undergraduate students about regenerative endodontic procedures (REPs).

The questionnaire was obtained after cross-cultural adaptation of a questionnaire previously applied in USA and was applied to two hundred forty-eight undergraduates. Data were statistically analyzed.

Most of the students (82.9%) agreed that regenerative therapy should be incorporated to dentistry and 87.5% of them believed that stem cells banks would be useful for the tissue regeneration. Most participants (58.1%) would like to obtain an internship/tutoring that addresses REPs and 80.8% of participants think that the major obstacle to a patient accepting a REP was the expected high cost of the treatment. The freshmen students were more optimistic about offering stem cell treatments to their patients (P≤0.05).

The undergraduates were very optimistic about the future of REPs, stem cell banking, and tissue engineering. Although seniors demonstrated less enthusiasm towards REPs than the freshman, most students are willing to recommend these treatments to their patients.