An educational approach for early student self-assessment in clinical periodontology.

BACKGROUND: Self-assessment is a mandated educational requirement for use in dental undergraduate programmes. It is weakly supported for use in early clinical training and studies are criticized for the conceptual and methodology shortfalls. The aim of the study was to compare the alignment of student self-assessment to both staff assessment and written exams in early clinical training using an educational approach. METHODS: In 2014-2015, 55 third-year dental students completed three educational sessions comprising of (a) classroom teaching (lecture, video) with post-lesson written exam and (b) clinical activity with student self-assessment, staff assessment and student reflection. An intra-individual analysis approach, staff validation, and student scoring standardization were implemented. Cognitive (clinical competency) and non-cognitive (professionalism) items were separated in the analyses. RESULTS: There were medium correlations (Spearman's rho, r) between student self-assessment and staff assessment scores for cognitive items (r, 0.32) and for non-cognitive items (r, 0.44) for all three combined sessions. There were large correlations for individual sessions. Compared to the post-lesson written exam, students showed small correlation (r, 0.22, 0.29) and staff showed medium correlation (r, 0.31, 0.34) for cognitive and non-cognitive items. Students showed improvements in their mean scores for both cognitive (t-test; p > 0.05) and non-cognitive items (t-test; p = 0.000). Mean scores of students were not different statistically from that of staff (p > 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Students may adequately act as self-assessors at the beginning of their clinical work in periodontology. Self-assessment may potentially improve the clinical performance. Self-assessment may be nurtured through clear guidelines, educational training strategies, feedback and reflection leading to better evaluative judgement and lifelong learning.

Application of the Rapid Entire Body Assessment (REBA) in assessing chairside ergonomic risk of dental students.

Introduction High prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) have been reported among operators in dentistry related to prolonged demanding and awkward operative tasks, in which non-neutral vertebral positions and risky joint articulations are adopted. The aim of the study was to investigate the feasibility and reliability of the application of the Rapid Entire Body Assessment (REBA) among dental students utilising three digital photographs of the operator to determine chairside ergonomic risk.Materials and methods Third-year dental students (n = 28) obtained profile, back and frontal digital photographs of student operators in a clinical session. REBA scorings were assigned per student utilising the photographs by student groups and independently by a physiotherapist. Statistical comparisons were done for both scorings.Results There was substantial interrater reliability (kappa = 0.625; p <0.001) and moderate concordance level (Kendall's Tau-b of 0.568; p <0.01) between the scores derived from students and staff. Medium- and high-risk students based on the REBA scores accounted for 64% and 75% of the class as determined by students and staff, respectively.Discussion The high percentage of medium-to-high-risk REBA values matched the prevalence of MSDs reported by dental students in the literature. Compared to staff, students with moderate reliability were able to produce REBA scores adequately.Conclusion REBA utilising digital photographs may be an easily applicable and moderately reliable tool for alerting static ergonomic risk for clinical dental students. Modification of at-risk behaviour early in training may limit the establishment of bad posture habits and aid in the prevention of MSDs during their clinical years and post-graduation.

Self-reported stress, coping ability, mental status, and periodontal diseases among police recruits.

OBJECTIVE: This cross-sectional study aimed to investigate self-reported stress level and coping ability as well as mental status (anxiety and depression) via the 12-item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) questionnaire and periodontal status among police academy recruits during their 8 months of training. METHODS: Eighty-five consenting police recruits were examined at baseline during the first month of training and again during the last month of training. Full mouth plaque score (FMPS), full mouth bleeding score, basic periodontal examination, self-reported stress level (scale of 1-10) and GHQ-12 questionnaire (mental status) were recorded at both visits. Ability to cope (yes/no) with stress was recorded at the final visit. Periodontal diagnosis was derived based on clinical examination. t test and regression analyses (p < .05) were performed. RESULTS: High stress (odds ratio: 1.25) and inability to cope with stress (odds ratio: 1.31) were statistically significant (p < .05) predictors of high FMPS. Inability to cope with stress (odds ratio: 1.45) was also a statistically significant (p < .05) predictor for periodontitis compared to gingivitis. Mental status (anxiety and depression) may play a greater role in gingivitis (mean 1.75) as opposed to periodontitis (mean 1.00) as reflected by the higher mean GHQ-12 (t test, p = .04). CONCLUSIONS: In this study, both self-reporting of stress level and ability to cope with stress were statistically significant predictors of higher plaque score (FMPS). Ability to cope with stress was also a statistically significant predictor of periodontitis compared to gingivitis. Recording of both self-reported stress level and ability to cope may be valuable variables to note in the management of plaque and periodontal diseases.