Are referred inaccessible human primary molar teeth really inaccessible?

Abstract

Despite a body of compelling evidence pertaining to the root canal accessibility of primary teeth, the number of referrals for inaccessibility of primary molars is considerable. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the prevalence of true and false primary molar inaccessibility among subjects who had been referred by general and pediatric dentists. We examined 199 primary molars in 156 patients (87 males, 69 females) aged 3-7 years who were referred by 215 general and 35 pediatric dentists. Problems related to inaccessibility were recorded for each tooth and any individual canal. One hundred seventy-five inaccessible teeth (87.9%) were successfully rehabilitated to accessible status (P < 0.001). The most frequent cause of inaccessibility was an inappropriate access cavity (42.3%), followed by difficult canals (32.6%) and orifice calcification (25.2%). The tooth most frequently reported as inaccessible was the maxillary first molar (40.2%), and that least frequently reported was the mandibular second molar (11.6%). The distobuccal canal of the maxillary first molar and the mesiolingual canal of the mandibular first molar were the most commonly inaccessible canals (P < 0.001). Only 1 out of 8 teeth referred as inaccessible was truly inaccessible. It seems that root canal inaccessibility is mostly attributable to lack of expertise among individual practitioners.