The effect of viewing video clips of paediatric local anaesthetic administration on the confidence of undergraduate dental students.

INTRODUCTION: Dental treatment for children requires not only technical skills, but also the knowledge and confidence to provide behaviour management to support children of differing ages and stages of development. It is not surprising then that dental students find treating children especially stressful. Paediatric dentistry training is therefore a vital element of the undergraduate dental curriculum. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Eighty-six fourth-year undergraduate dental students received standard lectures and seminars about behaviour management techniques for children having local anaesthetic. The students were then randomly divided into groups using cluster randomisation. The intervention group received an intervention-based around video clips (VCs) demonstrating behaviour management techniques (BMTs) for children receiving local anaesthetic The intervention and control groups completed self-administered questionnaires to determine their level of confidence in managing local anaesthetic for children. RESULTS: There was a statistically significant difference in the level of confidence between the groups immediately after the teaching intervention (P=.003) and at 4 months (P=.001) in favour of the video group. DISCUSSION: Previous studies on the use of video as a teaching aid have reported favourable results in terms of both student attitudes and learning outcomes. The results from this study confirm the benefits of this style of teaching paediatric behaviour skills in the undergraduate dental curriculum, and the benefits were maintained at 4 months. CONCLUSION: This study has demonstrated that VCs as an additional teaching aid are an effective method in improving students' confidence for BMTs when delivering local anaesthetic.

Primary care dentists' experience of treating avulsed permanent teeth.

INTRODUCTION: An avulsed permanent tooth is one of the few true emergencies in dentistry. Children who suffer this injury require urgent dental care and prompt follow-up care. There is very limited evidence available regarding the provision of treatment for avulsion injuries in primary dental care. OBJECTIVES: To explore the experience of UK dentists in relation to the management of avulsed permanent teeth. METHOD: A self-completion questionnaire was designed and piloted. Questionnaires were sent to a random selection of one thousand GDPs with a stamped addressed return envelope. A second mailshot was sent to non-responders after eight weeks. Simple descriptive analysis was undertaken using Microsoft Excel. The results were compared with those from an earlier, similar study in Wales. RESULTS: A total response rate of 61% was achieved. Just over 40% of responding dentists recalled replanting an avulsed permanent tooth in a child. CONCLUSIONS: Many dentists have limited or no experience of treating children with avulsed permanent teeth. Thirty-four percent of dentists have children with avulsion injuries under their care. Children with these traumatic injuries may benefit from shared care involving an interdisciplinary specialist team, in line with recommendations from the British Society of Paediatric Dentistry National Clinical Guidelines for Management of Avulsed Permanent Teeth in Children.