ABSTRACT
Background and Objective: Theoretical and clinical teachings in dentistry are not always according to the dentistry curriculum requirements, but they serve as the basis upon which Dentistry graduates start their own practice. The aim of this study was to find the resemblance between dentistry curriculum requirements with clinical experiences in restorative clinics of Mashhad Dental School in the two academic years of 2007 and 2008
Methods: Recorded data related to the teachings devoted to posterior Amalgam and Composite restorations were gathered from the archive of Restorative Department of Mashhad Dental School. Teaching volume was determined by considering the number of lecturers and sessions of preclinical exercises in the operative simulation laboratory during the General Dentistry program. Data available for direct posterior restorations placed by fourth, fifth and sixth year students were gathered from the students' report papers. The collected data were coded and categorized according to the surface number of posterior amalgam fillings [AFS1, AFS2, AFS3] and posterior composite fillings [CFS1, CFS2, CFS3]. These finding were placed on spreadsheets of Excel program and the related bar graphs were constructed for comparison of the devoted teaching volume and practice with the Dentistry curriculum requirements and the number of posterior amalgam and composite restorations
Results: Theoretical and practical teachings of amalgam and composite restorations have been in favor of amalgam with the ratio of 2 to 1. Clinically, practiced posterior composite restorations were 3 times more than the curriculum requirement. For the placement of three surface posterior restorations, amalgam favored over composite
Conclusion: Shift to the placement of posterior composite restorations needs to be addressed within dentistry curriculum, so the newly graduated dentists are prepared to place composite restorations properly