Perspective of students in the Global Citizenship in Dentistry as an international peer learning experience.

OBJECTIVE: To explore the achievement and perception of dental students in an international peer learning setting via the Global Citizenship in Dentistry (GCD) program. METHODS: In the GCD program, year-2 dental students from universities in Egypt, Hong Kong, Malaysia, UK, and the United States developed a portfolio of a restorative procedure in simulation laboratory and uploaded to an online platform (https://gcd.hku.hk/). Through the platform, the students left comments on each other's portfolios to share and discuss their knowledge and experiences on restorative dentistry. This study invited students from Hong Kong in 2018-2019 to complete an open-ended questionnaire to explore their experience on the GCD program. The feedback was compiled and analyzed. RESULTS: All 71 year-2 students completed the questionnaire. Their most dominant comments were positive feelings about learning different clinical principles and methods from universities abroad. The students also enjoyed the cultural exchange from the comfort of their own devices. Other recurrent comments included the improvement of the skills of communication and comments on the peers' work in a professional manner. The students were enthusiastic about being able to apply their critical thinking in evaluating their work. They shared their learning barriers, including the extra time needed for the program, some unenthusiastic responses from groupmates, and delayed replies from peers. They made suggestions to remove the barriers in the learning process of the GCD program. CONCLUSION: Students generally welcomed the GCD program and benefitted from the global academic exchange, development of critical thinking, enhancing professional communication skills, as well as opportunities of cultural exchange.

Effect of original water content in acrylic resin on processing shrinkage.

PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to determine the original water content of a supplied acrylic resin powder and a monomer and of dry heat-processed acrylic bars. The effect of the original water content of acrylic resin on processing shrinkage was also investigated. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Ten bar specimens were fabricated using dried and as-supplied (control) acrylic resins. The resins were polymerized and cooled, then weighed and measured to determine the amount of shrinkage. The initial water content of the specimens was determined by thorough drying, and results were compared with the Student ttest. RESULTS: The initial water content and processing shrinkage of the dried acrylic resin bars were both significantly lower (P < .0001) than those of the as-supplied acrylic resin bars. CONCLUSION: The processing shrinkage of acrylic resin made from dried constituents was significantly less than that of resin made from products as supplied by the manufacturer. However, it is not known if this change is of clinical significance.