Comparison of student productivity in four-handed clinic and regular unassisted clinic.

Although four-handed dentistry is routine in most dental practices in the United States, solo unassisted clinical practice is the norm for students at many North American dental schools. The objective of this study was to compare the clinical productivity of fourth-year dental students practicing in a four-handed model to the clinical productivity of those same fourth-year dental students practicing in a solo, unassisted mode at the University of Iowa College of Dentistry for the three academic years 2005-08. Students averaged 2.62 patient visits per day in the four-handed Dental Auxiliary Utilization (DAU) Clinic and 1.74 visits per day in the regular Family Dentistry Clinic. Charging fees that are approximately 50 percent of prevailing local private practice fees, the mean daily charges for services provided by individual students averaged $329 in the DAU Clinic and $190 in the Family Dentistry Clinic. The mean daily productivity differentials were 0.88 patient visits and $139. While students averaged 51 percent more patient visits and 75 percent higher charges daily in the DAU Clinic as compared to the regular Family Dentistry Clinic, the increased revenues might not be sufficient to offset increased expenses incurred in the four-handed clinical operation.

Correlation of quantity of dental students' clinical experiences with faculty evaluation of overall clinical competence: a twenty-two-year retrospective investigation.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the correlation between the quantity of a student's clinical experiences in the final year of dental school and the student's overall clinical competence at graduation, as evaluated by faculty at the University of Iowa College of Dentistry. Further, the authors sought to determine whether this correlation changed over time, as new generations of students come to dental school. Information including year of graduation, age at graduation, final grade in the course Clinical Competencies in Comprehensive Care, and final total Clinical Experience Units (CEUs) earned by each student in the D4 Family Dentistry Clinic was collected for 1987-2008 graduates of the University of Iowa College of Dentistry. Spearman's rank correlation coefficient (r(s)) was computed for the association of final clinical course grade and final CEU total for each graduation year. The correlation between final course grade and final CEU total was variable, ranging from moderately strong (r(s)=0.614, Class of 1991) to negligible (r(s)=-0.013, Class of 2008). This correlation generally tended to become weaker over time. The results of this study suggest that the terminal quality of a dental student's work is not solely a function of repetitions of prescribed procedures and that repetition of procedures may have even less influence on the quality of clinical performance for the new generation of dental students.

Associations among predental credentials and measures of dental school achievement.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the associations among several dental school admission criteria and several measures of dental school achievement. Data were collected for 2000-07 University of Iowa dentistry graduates, including five specific preadmission credentials and five specific measures of dental school achievement for each student. Pearson product moment correlations or Mann-Whitney U statistics were computed for the association of each of the ten variables with the nine others. The strongest correlation observed was between predental science grade point average (GPA) and overall predental GPA. Dental Admission Test (DAT) Academic Average was very strongly correlated with DAT Total Science, and both of these were each moderately correlated with DAT Perceptual Ability, predental science GPA, and overall predental GPA. Among the measures of dental school achievement, the strongest association was observed between National Board Dental Examination (NBDE) scores and dental school GPA. These were also moderately correlated with final clinical grade. All of the measures of dental school achievement were slightly stronger for candidates who passed the Central Regional Dental Testing Service (CRDTS) examination than for those who failed that exam. Of the predental credentials considered, predental science GPA and overall predental GPA were the best predictors of dental school GPA. DAT Academic Average was the best predictor of NBDE scores. Although DAT Perceptual Ability was the best predictor of clinical competency at the time of graduation, these two variables were only weakly correlated. DAT Perceptual Ability scores and overall predental GPA were slightly higher for candidates who passed the CRDTS examination than for those who failed that exam.