METHODS: Validated translated versions of the Hiroshima University-Dental Behavioural Inventory (HU-DBI) questionnaire were administered to 1,096 final-year dental students in 17 countries. Hierarchical cluster analysis was conducted within the data to detect patterns and groupings.
RESULTS: The overall response rate was 72%. The cluster analysis identified two main groups among the countries. Group 1 consisted of twelve countries: one Oceanic (Australia), one Middle-Eastern (Israel), seven European (Northern Ireland, England, Finland, Greece, Germany, Italy, and France) and three Asian (Korea, Thailand and Malaysia) countries. Group 2 consisted of five countries: one South American (Brazil), one European (Belgium) and three Asian (China, Indonesia and Japan) countries. The percentages of 'agree' responses in three HU-DBI questionnaire items were significantly higher in Group 2 than in Group 1. They include: "I worry about the colour of my teeth."; "I have noticed some white sticky deposits on my teeth."; and "I am bothered by the colour of my gums."
CONCLUSION: Grouping the countries into international clusters yielded useful information for dentistry and dental education.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: This cross-sectional web-based questionnaire survey was done among new dental graduates of the academic year 2019-2020 and the final year undergraduate students (academic year 2020-2021) from dental schools in Malaysia, using the Dental Undergraduates Preparedness Assessment Scale (DU-PAS), from 6th to 26th April 2021. The questionnaire addressed clinical skill competence, and cognitive and behavioral attributes. The number of respondents needed to achieve a confidence level of 95% with margin of error of 5% was 306.
RESULTS: A total of 453 (243 final year students and 210 new graduates) responded from dental schools nationwide, with a response rate of 30.6%. The overall mean score for preparedness for dental practice was 76.3±14.7, for clinical skills 39.7±7.3, and behavioral and cognitive attributes 36.5±9.1. New graduates had significantly higher mean preparedness score (78.6±14.4) as compared to students in their final year (74.2±14.7). Performing endodontic treatment on multi-rooted teeth had the lowest perceived competency (29.8%), followed by assessing treatment needs of patients requiring orthodontics (37.1%), prescribing drugs (46.6%) and providing crowns using principles of tooth preservation (48.1%).
CONCLUSIONS: Satisfactory scores were obtained for most attributes. The final-year cohort was significantly less prepared for dental practice compared to the newly graduated cohort.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: This cross sectional study involved 245 students enrolled in the first year medical (M1) and dental (D1) course and fourth year medical (M4) and dental (D4) course. The students completed a self-administered questionnaire which included knowledge and opinions on early childhood oral health. Comparisons between the groups were done using chi-square test.
RESULTS: Dental students showed significantly better knowledge than medical students. D1 students showed significantly better knowledge of age of first tooth eruption over M1. Knowledge of recommended age for bottle weaning was higher among D4 students but not significantly more than M4 students.
CONCLUSION: The majority of medical students showed inadequate knowledge indicating that medical curriculum should emphasise on oral health topics of public health relevance like ECC and its prevention. Dental students had better knowledge regarding early childhood oral health, but lacked knowledge on its preventive aspects.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted at a private university in Malaysia. A total of 188 undergraduate dental students were interviewed using a pre-tested and self-rated questionnaire. Data collected from participants were analysed using SPSS version 18.0. Chi-square test, Fisher's exact test and multiple logistic regression analyses were applied to study the relationship between explanatory variables and excessive Facebook use and excessive mobile texting.
RESULTS: The prevalence of excessive Facebook use and excessive mobile texting amongst undergraduate dental students was found to be 33.2% and 33.0%, respectively. According to a multivariate analysis, texting habits, such as the presence of daytime sleepiness after texting late at night (aOR = 2.682, 95% CI = 1.142-6.301) and the presence of anxious feelings if students failed to receive a timely response (aOR = 3.819, 95% CI = 1.580-9.230), were determined to be significant predictors of excessive mobile texting. Excessive Facebook use was found to be significantly related to three variables as follows: fewer numbers of close friends (aOR = 2.275, 95% CI = 1.057-4.898), the checking of updates on the Facebook walls of their friends (aOR = 2.582, 95% CI = 1.189-5.605) and the absence of active and vigorous feelings during Facebook use (aOR = 3.401, 95% CI = 1.233-9.434).
CONCLUSIONS: Approximately one-third of undergraduate dental students in this study experienced excessive Facebook use and/or excessive mobile texting. Health education and promotion should be instituted to create awareness, whilst students should be advised to practise self-control with respect to both mobile texting and Facebook usage.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: A literature search identified pre-existing measures and models for the assessment of attitudes in healthcare students. Adaptation of three pre-existing scales was undertaken, and a new scale was developed based upon the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) using an elicitation survey. These scales underwent a process of content validation. The three adapted scales and the TPB scale were piloted by 130 students at 5 different professional stages, from 4 different countries.
RESULTS: The scales were adjusted to ensure good internal reliability, variance, distribution, and face and content validity. In addition, the different scales showed good divergent validity.
DISCUSSION: These results are positive, and the scales now need to be validated in the field.
CONCLUSIONS: It is hoped that these tools will be useful to educators in SCD to evaluate the impact of teaching and clinical exposure on their students.
METHODS: Self-administered questionnaires were distributed to 233 undergraduate dental students involved with clinical teaching. This modified and validated questionnaire focusing on students' learning environment was used in order to gain relevant information related to dental clinical teaching. Six domains with different criteria applicable to clinical teaching in dentistry were selected consisting of modelling (four criteria), coaching (four criteria), scaffolding (four criteria), articulation (four criteria), reflection (two criteria) and general learning environment (six criteria). Data analyses were performed using IBM SPSS Statistics 20.
RESULTS: Majority of the students expressed positive perceptions on their clinical learning experience towards the clinical teachers in the Faculty of Dentistry, University of Malaya, in all criteria of the domains. Few negative feedbacks concerning the general learning environment were reported.
CONCLUSION: Further improvement in the delivery of clinical teaching preferably by using wide variety of teaching-learning activities can be taken into account through students' feedback on their learning experience.