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Teaching method influenced root filling quality?232IntroductionMore than half of the root fillings made on a Dutch population have been shown to be of inadequate quality.1,2 The quality of the root filling influences the outcome of the root canal treatment.3,4 Increasing the prevalence of good quality root fillings, should decrease the prevalence of post-treatment apical periodontitis.Most root canal treatments are carried out by general dental practitioners, skills of whom were mainly developed when they were students. Thus, the undergraduate endodontic education determines, to a large extent, the way root canal treatment is performed in the dental practice.5,6The way dental schools around the world teach their undergraduate students endodontology vary,7-10 as do the quality of root fillings made by the students.11-18The European Society of Endodontology published guidelines for an undergraduate curriculum for endodontology (ESE guidelines) in 199219 that were updated in 200120 and 2013.21 The aim of these guidelines was to guarantee that undergraduate training in endodontology was taken to a level that would eventually improve the standards of clinical practice. A number of dental schools in the European Union deviated from these guidelines.22 Most probably, those deviations were not only due to differences in resources, but also due to differences in opinions. For example, the ESE guidelines stated that it would be beneficial for undergraduate students to be taught and supervised by endodontists, especially for clinical endodontology. Whereas, at our institution, the departments had delegated their undergraduate clinical teaching to general dental practitioners using clinical manuals, strict guidelines and forms listing criteria how each procedure must be carried out. The student and/or the supervisor contacted an endodontist from the department of endodontology for advice or assistance, only when they encountered difficulties or complications during a root canal treatment. This method of polyclinical teaching was selected to teach students to provide “integrated oral treatment” for patients from the start.23 This method, however, seemed to be prone to creation of unnecessary endodontic complications, which could have been avoided.In 2010, the undergraduate dental curriculum at our institution was extended, from 5 to 6 years, and therefore, the method of teaching endodontology had to be adjusted, and it could be improved concurrently. Reasons for revision of the clinical training and assessment in endodontology (in this study called “programme”) were as follows: first, the assumption that training under conditions Annemarie Baaij.indd 23 28-06-2023 12:26