Awareness on Nanoparticles Incorporation in Dental Materials among Undergraduate Students - A Cross Sectional Survey

Nanotechnology is widely used in day to day life including its use in medicine. Using nanotechnology it is easy to analyse the atoms , chemical bonds and molecules present between various compounds. Use of nanoparticles in the field of dentistry is called nano dentistry. Chemical, physical and biological aspects of nanoparticles should be taken into account while choosing nanoparticles for the use in the field of nano dentistry. Nanoparticles are used in innovations of dentistry. Nano materials can be used for preventing and curing oral diseases such as oral cancer and to maintain oral health care. This study aims at evaluating knowledge and awareness of nanoparticles incorporated in dental materials among undergraduate dental students. A questionnaire with a set of 9 questions to assess the students knowledge and awareness about nanoparticles incorporation in dental materials. The sample size of 99 participants of dental students of Saveetha Dental College were selected by a simple random sampling method. The participants were asked to fill the questionnaire in an online site called survey planet. The results were collected and statistically analysed. Chi square test was done and it was found that 71% of the participants were aware about the use of nanoparticles in dental materials, even though it is statistically not significant (p value- 0.436), 73% of respondents were aware about nanoparticle incorporation in impression materials with p value 0.449 (not significant) and 72% were aware about use of nanomaterials in titanium implants(p value-0.340). Within the limitations of the study, it can be observed that the undergraduate students at the Faculty of Dentistry of Saveetha were well aware about the use of nanoparticles in dental materials

Comparative analysis of scientific research competitiveness between Chinese and foreign colleges of dentistry based on Scopus and Scival / 中华医学科研管理杂志

Objective Through the comparative analysis of the scientific research performance among different dental institutions,to understand the current situation of scientific research development at Peking University School of Stomatology,identify the advantages and disadvantages.Methods Using Scopus and Scival tools,five dental institutes at home and abroad were selected as the target institutions,parallel comparison of the research output,research influence and research development were conducted and analyzed.Results The research output of Peking University School of Stomatology and West China School of Stomatology is absolutely dominant.Peking University School of Stomatology is at a disadvantage in terms of research impact and development indicators such as Field-Weighted Citation Impact (FWCI),Outputs in Top10 ％ Citation Percentiles,Citation per Publication,and International Collaboration.In the distribution of dentistry,there is a big gap between Field-Weighted Citation Impact (FWCI) of different institutions.Conclusions The research strength of Peking University School of Stomatology is weak either in the whole or in the subdivision of dentistry,based on this,further measures and suggestions are put forward to provide reference for scientific development strategies.

Assessment of the existing dental education environment at a dental teaching institution

Introduction: An important aspect of creating a competent medical practitioner is the teaching-learning environment that shapes the mentality and instigates an urge among the students to learn. To facilitate a motivating learning setup, the faculty members need to inadvertently establish a successful and safe learning environment which is extensively feasible, given that the faculty gets to control their own style of teaching. A lot of research focuses on student's perception of the learning environment, seldom studies have reported the teacher's perspective. This present study focuses on the teacher's side of the story regarding the current scenario of the workplace that is one of the essential factors to alter the approach toward andragogy. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional questionnaire study was carried out using the Assessment of Medical Education Environment by Teachers (AMEET) questionnaire. The AMEET questionnaire was administered to 50 staff members at MA Rangoonwala College of Dental Sciences and Research Centre, Pune. All the participants were assured of confidentiality of their personal details and they all signed a written informed consent before participating in the study. Results: Majority of the participants had a positive attitude which was seen more in the seniors compared to the juniors. The teacher's perception of teaching is that there needs to be a greater emphasis on what the student learns rather than what the teacher does. Junior staff members felt that students do not prepare and come for classes nor are the expected outcomes clear to them. Assignments are also a task for the students that are never on time. Conclusion: It was observed that more senior faculties were positive toward the existing education environment. In addition, even though opportunities are available for the staff as well as students for upgrading and imbibing newer information, they were not being benefitted by the same due to underutilization.

Employee Motivation and Job Satisfaction of Faculty Members at a Multispeciality Dental College and Hospital.

Introduction: Job satisfaction is one of the most widely discussed issues in the organisational behaviour, personnel and human resource management. Teaching as an occupation requires a great deal of thoroughness and commitment hence requiring a greater degree of loyalty and mental involvement rather than physical presence. This study was conducted to determine the level of job satisfaction and employee motivation among the faculty members of ESIC Dental College and Hospital, Delhi. An attempt was made to determine the factors that influence the satisfaction and motivation level of the faculty members. Methods: 64 faculty members agreed to be a part of the study with equal numbers from the medical and dental fraternity. The study was conducted as an opinion survey on the basis of a pre-structured questionnaire divided into two sections : section 1 socio-demographic features of the subjects and section 2 divided into 6 sub sections with total 19 statements (S1to S19) exploring different factors. The mean score was calculated for each of the statements separately for the two groups along with the mean average score and the mean difference between the two groups. Results: It can be seen that 50% of the faculty was young (<40 years of age), majority were females (62.5%) and were at the rank of assistant professors (68.75%). Based on the responses to the questionnaire around 61% of the faculty members were satisfied with their current job. The range of the mean score of the faculty members was from 2 to 4.18 (dental faculty 2.31 to 4.18 and medical faculty 2 to 4.5). The average mean score for all the statements was 3.47 whereas the mean difference was 0.27. Conclusion: Based on the results of the survey it can be concluded that the faculty seems to be most satisfied with the teamwork and interpersonal relationships within the organisation as well as the social schemes run by ESIC. They considered themselves to be well equipped in terms of knowledge and skills as per their job expectations. They seemed to be most dissatisfied with the loan facilities offered and with performance based incentives given at the college.

Dentistry: by choice or chance? A questionnaire survey for pre clinical dental students

Historically, Indian education has been elitist. Currently, India has the second largest education system in the world preceded by China. In order to meet the demand for coveted dental education, private dental colleges have sprung across the country, making the access easy for the students to enroll into dental education programmes after their higher secondary education. This has lead to a suspicion whether these dental students had been forced into a course that they did not aspire of and even if they actually chose the career, are they performing as good as they expected to be once the course commences. This questionnaire survey aims at discussing these issues and to prepare the Indian education system at both school and college level to encompass and implement an orientation and motivation program to overcome this.

The current status and future tasks of the prosthodontics curriculum in Korean dental schools and graduate dental schools / 대한치과보철학회지

PURPOSE: Prosthodontics education of Korean dental schools is developing under liberal regulation according to the character of each school. Diversity in the current environment and condition for each school make it impossible to apply the same and uniform education curriculum. Therefore the purpose of this paper is to analyze and validate the status of the 2012 prosthodontics education curriculum in Korean dental schools, and to suggest future direction. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A survey was completed by all the 11 dental schools in South Korea. RESULTS: The number of students, age, sex, credits for prosthodontics lecture and practice courses, evaluation method before senior students' clinical practice, modalities for minimum requirement for graduation, beginning and finishing timing of clinical practice and faculty personnel involved in the education varied among the dental schools. CONCLUSION: High-quality educators leading an expanded teaching personnel are required, education hours must be increased and efficient curriculum must be organized to improve the prosthodontics education.

Need of implant dentistry at undergraduate dental curriculum in Indian dental colleges.

Edentulism is the major problem in the developing countries, and is widely spread in the current population, although the prevalence is declining and incidence of tooth loss is decreasing in the developed nations. The prevalence of edentulism in India varies from 60% to 69% of 25 years and above age group. It is obvious that the number of lost teeth increases with age leading to an increase in prevalence of partially edentulous patients. From a biological point of view, the replacement of a single missing tooth with an implant rather than a three-unit fixed partial denture, and the implant-supported complete denture has been proved more efficient in improving the mastication and maintaining the bone for a longer time and also more cost-effective treatment. Many dental schools throughout Europe and America have to a various extent introduced implant dentistry as part of the compulsory undergraduate curriculum. Thus, it becomes more essential to introduce implant dentistry at undergraduate level in Indian dental schools to manage the higher percentage of edentulism.