Quality of life and satisfaction of patients after nonsurgical primary root canal treatment provided by undergraduate students, graduate students and endodontic specialists A. A. Hamasha 1 & A. Hatiwsh 2 1 Department of Preventive Dentistry, Jordan University of Science and Technology, Irbid; and 2 Department of Conservative Dentistry, Faculty of Dentistry, Jordan University of Science and Technology, Irbid, Jordan Abstract Hamasha AA, Hatiwsh A. Quality of life and satisfaction of patients after nonsurgical primary root canal treatment provided by undergraduate students, graduate students and endodontic specialists. International Endodontic Journal, 46, 1131–1139, 2013. Aim (i) To assess the impact of primary root canal treatment on the perceived quality of life amongst a cohort of Jordanian patients, (ii) to assess the cohort’s satisfaction with their primary root canal treatment, and (iii) to evaluate the association of the level of training and experience of clinicians with these two parameters. Methodology A systematic random sample of 302 subjects was selected from patients who attended undergraduate, graduate and specialty clinics of Jordan University of Science and Technology. Partici- pants were interviewed before and two weeks after completion of root canal treatment. The study instru- ment included the Oral Health Impact Profile questionnaire (Dugas et al. 2002) and seven semantic differential scales. Data analyses included descriptive statistics and nonparametric analyses. Results More than 90% of subjects reported improvements in the sense of taste, pain, eating, altering food temperature, self-consciousness, waking during sleep, interruption of meals, difficulty to relax and difficulty to sleep after root canal treatment. There was no significant difference in terms of improvement amongst patients treated by specialists, graduate students or undergraduate students. The overall semantic differential score of intraoperative pain, pleasantness, chewing ability and general satisfaction was approximately 8. Satisfaction of root canal treatment by specialists was higher in terms of time involved, intraoperative pain, pleasantness and general satisfaction than those treatments by under- graduate students. Patients treated by specialist were least satisfied with the treatment cost compared to those patients treated by graduate or undergraduate students. Conclusions The impact of root canal treatment on the quality of life was apparent. Satisfaction with root canal treatment approximates to 8 on the semantic differential scale with preference for special- ists over dental students. Keywords: endodontics, life, provider, quality, satisfaction, treatment. Received 8 July 2012; accepted 10 March 2013 Introduction Quality of life is defined as ‘the individuals’ perception of their position in life in the context of culture and value systems in which they live and in relation to their goals, expectation, standards, and concerns’ (The World Health Organization Quality of Life assessment (WHOQOL): position paper from the World Correspondence: Abed Al-Hadi Hamasha, Professor and Dean, Faculty of Applied Medical Sciences, Jordan University of Science and Technology, Irbid 22110, Jordan (Tel.: +962 2 7201000 ext. 23773; Fax: +962 2 7201087; e-mail: hamasha@just.edu.jo). © 2013 International Endodontic Journal. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd International Endodontic Journal, 46, 1131–1139, 2013 doi:10.1111/iej.12106 1131