Utilising an innovative digital software to grade pre-clinical crown preparation exercise.

BACKGROUND: Accurate assessment of dental students' pre-clinical work is the most critical component of the dental education process. Thus, this study came to investigate the effectiveness of using technology in students' pre-clinical work evaluation; by comparing grades generated from a digital assessment software of a prepared tooth and a traditional visual inspection carried out by four calibrated faculty members. METHODS: Ninety-six teeth were prepared for a ceramo-metal crown by fourth year dental students. The four examiners and the digital grading software evaluated independently each preparation once. A random sample of 20 preparations were graded twice to assess intra-rater reliability. Inter-class correlation (ICC) was used to measure agreement among the four examiners, and between the examiners and the digital grading software. Paired student t-test was used to assess the accuracy of grades generated from visual inspection when compared to the digital grading system. RESULTS: Intra-rater reliability for examiners 1 and 2 were 0.73 and 0.78 and for the digital grading system was 0.99. The inter-rater reliability among the four examiners was very good, ICC of 0.76. However, the agreement between scores produced by the examiners and the digital system were mostly in the low to moderate range. The paired t-test demonstrated statistically significant differences between each examiner and the digital grading by 6-25 grades. CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrates that the digital grading system used in this study can reliably scan and compare students' tooth preparations to a known gold standard. Results of this study suggests that using digital grading will preclude the variability and the subjectivity that usually result from the traditional visual inspection grading.

Understanding Pediatric Dentists' Dental Caries Management Treatment Decisions: A Conjoint Experiment.

When traditional ranking and rating surveys are used to assess dentists' treatment decisions, the patient's source of payment appears to be of little importance. Therefore, this study used the marketing research tool conjoint analysis to investigate the relative impact of source of payment along with the child's age and cooperativeness on pediatric dentists' willingness to use Atraumatic Restorative Treatment (ART) to restore posterior primary teeth. A conjoint survey was completed by 707 pediatric dentists. Three factors (age of the child, cooperativeness, type of insurance) were varied across 3 levels to create 9 patient scenarios. The relative weights that dentists placed on these factors in the restorative treatment decision process were determined by conjoint analysis. "Cooperativeness" (52%) was the most important factor, "age of the child" (26%) the second-most important factor, followed by "insurance status of the child" (22%). For the third factor, insurance, pediatric dentists were least willing to use ART with publicly insured children (-0.082), and this was significantly different from their willingness to use ART with uninsured children (0.010) but not significantly different than their willingness to use ART for children with private insurance (0.073). Unlike traditional ranking and rating tools, conjoint analysis found that the insurance status of the patient appeared to be an important factor in dentists' decisions about different restorative treatment options. When pediatric dentists were forced to make tradeoffs among different patients' factors, they were most willing to use ART technique with young, uncooperative patients when they had no insurance. Knowledge Transfer Statement: The present study suggests the feasibility of using techniques borrowed from marketing research, such as conjoint analysis, to understand dentists' restorative treatment decisions. Results of this study demonstrate pediatric dentists' willingness to use a particular restorative treatment option (Atraumatic Restorative Treatment in this application) when forced to make tradeoffs in a "conjoined," or holistic, context among different factors presented in real-life patient scenarios. A deeper understanding of dentists' treatment decisions is vital to develop valid practice guidelines and interventions that encourage the use of appropriate restorative treatment modalities.

Gender-specific oral health attitudes and behaviour among dental students in Palestine.

This study assessed gender differences in oral health knowledge, attitude and behaviour among undergraduate dental students in Palestine. Students aged 18-22 years at Al Quds University (n=260) completed the English version of the Hiroshima University-Dental Behavioral Inventory. Females had more positive dental health attitudes and behaviours (making regular visits the dentist, being more educated about professional toothbrushing and taking more care with brushing their teeth). Half the students of both sexes thought they could not avoid having false teeth when they were old. Some aspects of oral health behaviour and attitudes were different between males and females, but in other aspects professional training may have compensated for these differences.

Gender-specific oral health attitudes and behaviour among dental students in Palestine

This study assessed gender differences in oral health knowledge, attitude and behaviour among undergraduate dental students in Palestine. Students aged 18-22 years at Al Quds University [n = 260] completed the English version of the Hiroshima University-Dental Behavioral Inventory. Females had more positive dental health attitudes and behaviours [making regular visits the dentist, being more educated about professional toothbrushing and taking more care with brushing their teeth]. Half the students of both sexes thought they could not avoid having false teeth when they were old. Some aspects of oral health behaviour and attitudes were different between males and females, but in other aspects professional training may have compensated for these differences

Evaluation of the Ministry of Health school oral health programme in the West Bank region of Palestine.

This paper reports an evaluation of the activities and outcomes of the school oral health programme conducted by the Ministry of Health in public schools in the West Bank region of Palestine from 1997-98 to 2003-04. Retrospective analysis of official records focused on oral health indices and student referrals. A slight improvement in DMFT scores in students in some governorates in the last 2 years showed some progress in caries control. However, maintenance efforts are required to ensure that caries level does not rise in disease-stable areas, and an increase in strategic effort is required to address the high caries level in high-risk areas. In-depth interviews with stakeholders identified the strengths and weaknesses of the screening programme and recommendations for improvements.

Evaluation of the Ministry of Health school oral health programme in the West Bank region of Palestine

This paper reports an evaluation of the activities and outcomes of the school oral health programme conducted by the Ministry of Health in public schools in the West Bank region of Palestine from 1997-98 to 2003-04. Retrospective analysis of official records focused on oral health indices and student referrals. A slight improvement in DMFT scores in students in some governorates in the last 2 years showed some progress in caries control. However, maintenance efforts are required to ensure that caries level does not rise in disease-stable areas, and an increase in strategic effort is required to address the high caries level in high-risk areas. In-depth interviews with stakeholders identified the strengths and weaknesses of the screening programme and recommendations for improvements