Final-year dental students' self-perceived knowledge and self-reported clinical approaches to vital pulp therapy: a single-institution cross-sectional survey.

BACKGROUND: Undergraduate dental education should prepare students to understand and apply contemporary vital pulp therapy (VPT) procedures in permanent teeth. However, students' self-perceived knowledge, stated treatment preferences, and self-reported clinical approaches regarding VPT may vary according to their theoretical and clinical training. This study aimed to describe final-year dental students' self-perceived knowledge, recognition of VPT procedures, stated treatment preferences, and self-reported clinical approaches regarding VPT. METHODS: This single-institution cross-sectional survey was conducted among final-year dental students at a dental faculty in Türkiye in June 2025. Of 100 eligible students, 88 completed a 17-item questionnaire (response rate, 88.0%) addressing self-perceived knowledge, sources of information, treatment preferences, reported clinical approaches, rubber dam isolation, hemostatic agents, and material selection in VPT. Data were summarized descriptively using frequencies and percentages. RESULTS: Most students rated their self-perceived knowledge of VPT as moderate (60.2%), while theoretical courses (42.0%) and clinical practice (36.4%) were the main reported sources of VPT information. Direct pulp capping (94.3%), partial pulpotomy (Cvek; 89.8%), and indirect pulp capping (86.4%) were most frequently identified as vital pulp therapy procedures, whereas total pulpotomy was identified as a vital pulp therapy procedure by 53.4% of students. In mature teeth, direct pulp capping was reported more frequently than partial or total pulpotomy. Treatment preferences varied according to pulp exposure size, with a shift from direct pulp capping for 0-1 mm exposures to partial pulpotomy for 1-2 mm exposures and total pulpotomy or root canal treatment for exposures larger than 2 mm. Only 15.9% of students reported applying rubber dam isolation at the beginning of the treatment, and the combined response option "ferric sulfate or aluminum chloride" was selected most frequently for hemostasis (46.6%). CONCLUSIONS: Final-year dental students reported moderate self-perceived knowledge of VPT and recognized several commonly used VPT procedures, but their self-reported approaches varied, particularly regarding pulpotomy procedures, rubber dam timing, hemostatic-agent selection, and simplified pulp-exposure scenarios. These findings should be interpreted as self-reported educational indicators rather than objective evidence of clinical competence or broad curricular inadequacy. Multicenter studies using case-based and performance-based assessments are needed to guide undergraduate VPT teaching.