Factors affecting the quality of endodontic treatment in general dental practice in Scotland: A qualitative focus group study

Abstract

Introduction: The quality of endodontic treatment worldwide is variable despite clear clinical guidelines being available. Aims: Identify the factors that affect the quality of endodontic treatment in general dental practice in Scotland and how to overcome the barriers identified. Methods: Four online focus group interview sessions were conducted in which a total of 16 participants were recruited, including general dental practitioners, endodontic specialists and educationalists. Topics for facilitated discussion were based on healthcare system theory and included education/training, patient factors, resources and equipment factors; themes were identified via template analysis. Results: A number of themes and subthemes affecting the quality of care are reported, including aspects to do with remuneration, time, education, training, support from secondary care and the impact of COVID-19. Conclusion: Findings support: increase practical experience for undergraduates; access to postgraduate mentoring and training; development of a managed clinical network to facilitate access to appropriately trained specialists; and increased remuneration to allow sufficient time and adequate equipment to achieve clinical standards.

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This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0.© The Author(s) 2022

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DOI

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41415-022-4475-4

Repository URI

http://eprints.gla.ac.uk/267896/