The Outcome of a New Teledentistry Initiative in Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Cross-sectional Study.

AIM: The purpose of this study was to assess the overall satisfaction of a new learning experience and evaluate the outcome of LLUSD's educational teledentistry initiative through a survey based on Kirkpatrick's multidimensional model of training evaluation. MATERIALS AND METHODS: An IRB application was approved (#5210385) for a cross-sectional study that included Loma Linda University School of Dentistry (LLUSD) dental students of the class of 2022 and 2023. The 9-question survey consisted of three sections. The first section included demographic questions on gender and the graduating class. The second section was related to perceived teaching effectiveness, attitude, behavior, and significance. The third section included an open-ended question. The survey was distributed by three student investigators. Descriptive statistics were calculated, and categorical variables were compared using the Chi-squared test (χ2 test). RESULTS: The perceived teaching effectiveness of the newly implemented educational initiative was high for increasing the ability to communicate with patients and for screening and identifying the need for referrals. A majority of students believed that teledentistry is an important means to improve patients' access to dental care and that the School has been providing a good educational environment in providing teledentistry sessions to patients. There were no significant differences in the frequencies of positive and negative responses to all questions (N = 6) by gender and by class (p >0.05, in all instances). CONCLUSIONS: Teledentistry eVisits allowed the continuation of patient contact and initial assimilation of patient information. There is potential for this educational initiative to be more actively and comprehensively implemented in the future. CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE: New educational initiatives allow the continuation of patient contact that will ensure that students will graduate as competent oral health care providers despite challenges imposed by the pandemic.

Impact of COVID-19 on Teaching the Tooth Morphology Course to the New Generation of Learners: A Cross-sectional Study.

AIM: The purpose of the study was two-fold. First, to evaluate students' learning style and relate it to their academic performance. Second, to highlight changes implemented in the tooth morphology (TOMO) course as a response to the coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The study was performed during 2021-2022 with 101 dental students. Didactic lectures were delivered online and students challenged with nine quizzes and one final examination. Didactic score was calculated by averaging the scores of quizzes and the final exam. Lab score was a combination of five lab projects and the final competency. At course completion, students received a survey on their learning style and how they would like to receive feedback. Kruskal-Wallis test was used to assess differences in didactic and lab scores among groups. RESULTS: Many students perceived themselves as visual learners (39%) followed by kinesthetic (24%), aural (19%), and reader (18%). There was no difference among learning style groups in performance of didactic (p = 0.340) and lab scores (p = 0.845). Students preferred that the instructor talks them through the questions for feedback on quizzes (41%) while they preferred demonstrations when receiving feedback on their wax-ups (51%). Most students (75%) preferred a TOMO teacher that uses demonstrations. 2020-2021 marked the year of the pandemic where all lectures were delivered online and waxing projects were performed at-home. A postpandemic transformation occurred during 2021-2022, reverting to conventional in-person lab sessions while keeping online didactic lectures. CONCLUSION: We conclude that TOMO should be delivered by using various teaching styles rather than focusing on a single method while providing more demonstrations. CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE: Teaching tooth morphology to the new generation type of learners efficiently will affect the clinical work of dental graduates.