Association amongst factors thought to be important by instructors in dental education and perceived effectiveness of these instructors by students.

It is hypothesised that dental educators have perceptions of their roles as effective teachers. It is expected that subject matter expertise would be amongst the components of such personal philosophies of education, but it is unclear whether faculty member self-perceptions carry over into student ratings of instructors' effectiveness. A 20-item survey of 'Teaching Characteristics' was completed by 86% of full-time and 64% of the part-time faculty members at the University of the Pacific. Respondents distributed 100 points amongst the descriptions of what makes an effective instructor. The responses were factor-analysed, resulting in four general faculty 'types' that explained about 50% of the variance in ratings: expert, enthusiast, judicial and good soldier. Student ratings for the 2 years running up to the date of the survey administration were used to gauge student perceptions of instructor effectiveness. Faculty members who placed emphasis on expertise as key to being a good instructor received significantly lower ratings for teacher effectiveness from students than did other faculty members. Faculty members who conceived their roles as motivating students, explaining difficult concepts, displaying interest in the subject, showing compassion and caring, and being proactive tended to receive high ratings for teaching effectiveness from students.

Occlusal refinement of mounted casts before crown fabrication to decrease clinical time required to adjust occlusion.

STATEMENT OF PROBLEM: An inordinate amount of time is often required to adjust the occlusion of a newly fabricated crown. PURPOSE: This study determined whether the procedure of "cast adjustment" significantly decreases the time necessary to clinically adjust the occlusion of a newly fabricated crown. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Thirty-eight crowns were fabricated by a commercial dental laboratory for patients of senior dental students at the University of the Pacific School of Dentistry. After master casts were returned from the laboratory and then mounted on semiadjustable articulators by the students, the cases were divided randomly into 2 groups: (1) the control group, for which no further work was performed before fabrication of the restoration; and (2) the experimental group, in which casts were occlusally adjusted by a certified laboratory technician until there was at least 1 cusp tip to flat surface centric contact on each posterior tooth in maximum intercuspation position. After the crowns were delivered, the students filled out a survey. One question on the survey asked the student for the time required to adjust the occlusion on the crown. RESULTS: Of the 19 crowns in the control group, 6 crowns required more than 1 hour for occlusal adjustment. Of the 19 crowns in the experimental group, 1 crown required more than 1 hour for occlusal adjustment. CONCLUSION: Performing a "cast adjustment" before fabricating a single unit casting can significantly decrease the chance of a lengthy clinical occlusal adjustment.

The effect of magnification on the performance of fixed prosthodontic procedures.

This study attempts to quantify the effect of magnifiers on the quality of typical procedures in fixed prosthodontics that are technique-sensitive and have significant increase in clinical success when errors are minimized. Dental students who performed fixed prosthodontic procedures while using magnifiers were found to have committed half as many errors as students who performed the same preparation without the aid of a magnifier.