ABSTRACT
Background/purpose The coronavirus disease 2019 gradually slows down. As schools now progressively went back to the physical class, it was essential to think about whether we should go back to the physical course, shift to the online course, or try to combine both. Materials and methods One hundred and six students (including 67 medical students, 19 dental students, and 20 students from another department) who took the histology course with both physical and online lectures and the virtual microscopy for the histology laboratory course were enrolled in this study. Students' acceptance and learning effectiveness were evaluated by a questionnaire-based survey, and their examination scores were compared before and after the online class. Results Most students accepted the combined physical and online lectures (81.13%), considered increased interactivities in the physical class (79.25%), and felt comfortable when taking the online class (81.14%). Moreover, most students considered that the online learning was friendly to use (83.02%) and could improve the learning effectiveness (80.19%). The mean examination scores were significantly higher after the online class than before the online class, regardless of different genders and groups of students. Most participants (29.2%) preferred the 60% online learning proportion, followed in a descending order by the 40% online learning (25.5%) and the 80% online learning (14.2%). Conclusion Our students can generally accept the combined physical and online lectures for learning the histology course. The academic performances significantly improve after the online class. The hybrid course may become the future trend of learning the histology course.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND/PURPOSE: Online learning has been used to continue dental education activities during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). This study aimed to compare the learning effectiveness between physical classroom and online class learning for dental education during the COVID-19 pandemic by the questionnaire survey. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A questionnaire-based online survey was used to evaluate the learning effectiveness on the dental students who took the compulsory course entitled "oral pathology and diagnosis" in School of Dentistry, National Taiwan University in 2021. Student's t-test and Mann-Whitney U test were used to analyze the difference in learning effectiveness between physical classroom and online class learning for dental education during the COVID-19 pandemic. RESULTS: In this study, dental students tended to have a viewpoint that the learning effectiveness of online class learning was better than that of physical classroom learning. On the contrary, they tended to have a viewpoint that the convenience and fairness of physical classroom examination was better than that of online examination (all P-values < 0.001). CONCLUSION: We conclude that our dental students are ready to take online courses. In terms of blended learning courses, the combination of physical classroom and online courses is the future trend of dental education. At this moment, dental schools must prepare their abilities for the implementation of online courses to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic and the next crisis, as well as for the needs of future dental education.
ABSTRACT
Numerous oral manifestations of COVID-19 have been reported in the literatures. Common oral lesions in COVID-19 patients included ulcerations, xerostomia, dysgeusia, gingival inflammation, and erythema. Among them, oral ulceration is the most frequent finding and is present as various but distinct patterns. Thus, we conducted a comprehensive review of 51 COVID-19 patients with oral ulcerative lesions to further analyze the various oral ulcerative lesions in COVID-19 patients. There were a median age of 41.4 years and a slight female predilection in these patients. Most oral lesions manifested as an aphtha-like ulceration but lack of an evidence of recurrent aphthous stomatitis. Some of them were present as herpetiform ulcerations without HSV infection. Widespread ulcerations accompanied with necrosis were observed in the more severe and immunosuppressed older patients. Although some reported patients were asymptomatic, most of them had systemic symptoms concurring or slightly preceding the oral ulcerative lesions and the latency from the onset of systemic symptoms to oral ulcerative lesions were under 10 days, suggesting that oral ulceration was one of the early symptoms of COVID-19. Therefore, the oral ulcerative lesions may be considered as oral markers for early diagnosis of the underlying COVID-19 infection in the asymptomatic patients.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND/PURPOSE: The dentists are the high-risk group of infectious respiratory diseases during dental treatment. This study investigated the changes of the numbers of overall practicing dentists, dental clinics, and hospital dentists in Taiwan during the COVID-19 pandemic. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We collected the data of the numbers of overall practicing dentists, dental clinics, and hospital dentists in each city and county of Taiwan in October 2019, April 2020, and October 2020 for evaluating the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the dentist manpower in Taiwan. RESULTS: After the COVID-19 outbreak, the total increased numbers of practicing dentists, dental clinics, and hospital dentists in Taiwan were 408, 14, and -16 from October 2019 to October 2020, respectively. In addition, their increased rates of the corresponding items were 2.76%, 0.21%, and -0.72%, respectively. The increased rate of practicing dentists from October 2019 to April 2020 was significantly higher than that of dental clinics (Pâ¯<â¯0.001) and that of hospital dentists (Pâ¯<â¯0.001). Moreover, the increased rate of practicing dentists from October 2019 to October 2020 was significantly higher than that of dental clinics (Pâ¯<â¯0.01). CONCLUSION: During the COVID-19 pandemic, the increased number of practicing dentists is not different from that in the past, but the increased numbers and rates of dental clinics and hospital dentists are lower than those in the past. This indicates that the willingness of dentists to open new dental clinics or work in hospitals reduces due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.