Assessment of Perceived Competency of Interns toward Dental Practice.

BACKGROUND: Many academic institutions have been cheering lecturers to execute flipped learning methodologies. The present study determined perceived competency of dental interns toward dental practice among various dental colleges.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 138 interns of dental college were provided with self-administered questionnaire with close-ended questions. All were instructed to read it and submit it.
RESULTS: Out of 138 subjects, there were 78 males and 60 females. The mean value for general patient management was 3.12 and 3.0 in males and females, periodontology and dental public health was 2.54 and 2.65, conservative dentistry was 2.70 and 2.82, oral rehabilitation was 2.32 and 2.30, orthodontics was 2.10 and 2.28, management of children and special needs patients was 2.52 and 2.64, oral and maxillofacial surgery was 2.49 and 2.42, and drug and emergency management was 2.62 and 2.60, respectively.
CONCLUSION: Dental interns were well prepared toward dental practice. Copyright:

INTRODUCTION

Most of the dental colleges and hospitals in India are government or the private colleges being controlled by trusts or societies. With the limitation in emergence of new government dental colleges, the number of private dental colleges has increased drastically providing better facilities to students as compared to old government one.

The poor infrastructure, outdated technologies, machines, dental chairs, and limited number of teaching and nonteaching faculty are the leading causes for opening of new dental colleges. There is low supply of funds to government to these colleges. The number of private dental colleges is almost 3–4 times than government dental colleges.[1]

Many academic institutions have been cheering lecturers to execute flipped learning methodologies. The goal is that students will carry out preclass groundwork, come to the class prepared and ready to engage with the lecturer, and then consolidate their knowledge through after class revision.[2]

Preparation involves accessing information posted electronically, including reading selected chapters from ebooks, or PDF notes; watching PowerPoint slide shows, videos, and links to YouTube presentations; or visiting recommended internet study sites. During lecture time, students have opportunities to ask questions rather than sitting through a traditional formal lecture.[3] Thereafter, they will be given online revision exercises, assignments, and assessments to complete in order to merge their new knowledge and provide the lecturers with a form of continuous evaluation.

Lectures are taken online or offline and the trends of providing written notes have been eliminated. Online lecture materials are available which prove to be fruitful for students. Soft copies of textbooks are available which is the biggest advantage nowadays.[4] Considering advent of new technologies, dental colleges need to be updated. Increase in globalization necessitates the need to acquire full knowledge regarding new concepts and technologies to provide best facilities to future dental surgeons of India.[5] The present study determined perceived competency of dental interns toward dental practice among various dental colleges.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

A total of 138 dental interns of dental colleges were recruited to participate in the study. They were enrolled after getting their written consent.

Demographic profile of each dental intern was recorded. A pretested, validated, self-administered questionnaire containing close-ended questions was used. Questionnaire was based on the management of patients in clinical departments, general dental public health, periodontium and gingival health, vitality of dental teeth and restorations, oral rehabilitation of patients, management for orthodontically maligned and impacted teeth, care and treatment for children requiring special needs, care for geriatric patients, management of traumatic teeth and facial bone injuries, and emergency treatment to accident cases. All were given this questionnaire and the response was recorded. Results thus obtained were analyzed statistically, with the level of significance set at 0.05.

RESULTS

Table 1 shows that out of 138 subjects, there were 78 males and 60 females.

Table 1

Subjects distribution

Gender	n
Male	78
Female	60
Total	138

Table 2 and Graph 1 show that the mean value for general patient management was 3.12 and 3.0 in males and females, periodontology and dental public health was 2.54 and 2.65, conservative dentistry was 2.70 and 2.82, oral rehabilitation was 2.32 and 2.30, orthodontics was 2.10 and 2.28, management of children and special needs patients was 2.52 and 2.64, oral and maxillofacial surgery was 2.49 and 2.42, and drug and emergency management was 2.62 and 2.60, respectively. A nonsignificant (P > 0.05) difference was observed in parameters between both genders.

Table 2

Self-perceived competency of interns

Domain	Male	Female	P
General patient management	3.12	3.0	0.13
Periodontology and dental public health	2.54	2.65	0.72
Conservative dentistry	2.70	2.82	0.34
Oral rehabilitation	2.32	2.30	0.62
Orthodontics	2.10	2.28	0.12
Management of children and special needs patients	2.52	2.64	0.19
Oral and maxillofacial surgery	2.49	2.42	0.21
Drug and emergency management	2.62	2.60	0.41

Graph 1

Self-perceived competency of interns

DISCUSSION

Since the increase in internet usage, it has converted to be essential source for communication as it is easy to access all kinds of information quickly and directly.[6] It allows information to be used for entertainment, leisure, social, educational, and research purposes. The presumption is that all students possess the requisite technological skills and competencies and are comfortable using and interacting on the various internet platforms.[7] Unfortunately, this strategy requires an increased amount of self-regulated learning, which may result in a cognitive overload and a breakdown in the learning process due to reduced support from a lecturer.[8]

The paucity of distribution of dentists based on population created origin of new dental diseases as one of the general peoples' health problem.[9] According to recent estimates, dental caries are usually seen among school-going children being above 50%. Similarly, it is observed that periodontal diseases are prevalent in approximately 90% of children. The consumption of tobacco and tobacco products in both chewable and nonchewable form proved to be major cause of increased number of oral cancer cases in young adults. Government as well as private sectors organizes health awareness-related programs time to time in order to create knowledge among general population related to their general and dental health. The Indian Medical Association and the Indian Dental Association are two major bodies which govern these programs.[10] However, still, the disease burden is high; to bring down the disease burden, we need to assess the competency of the young dental graduates toward their preparedness for dental practice.

We found that out of 138 subjects, there were 78 males and 60 females. Prabhu et al.[11] found that 71.5% (143/200) showed overall response rate. 83.9% of the subjects found to be prepared well regarding dental practice. It was further observed that most of the subjects considered endodontics and preventive dentistry as “bread and butter.” At the same time, few dental interns found to be inadequately prepared related to dentistry. 60%–65% answered that they are not prepared regarding removal of impacted third molars. Also they were inadequate to handle complications such as root fracture, sinus perforations and dry sockets, management of trauma to dentofacial complex, replacement of missing teeth with conventional bridges and implants, and in performing periodontal surgical procedures.

We observed that the mean value for general patient management was 3.12 and 3.0 in males and females, periodontology and dental public health was 2.54 and 2.65, conservative dentistry was 2.70 and 2.82, oral rehabilitation was 2.32 and 2.30, orthodontics was 2.10 and 2.28, management of children and special needs patients was 2.52 and 2.64, oral and maxillofacial surgery was 2.49 and 2.42, and drug and emergency management was 2.62 and 2.60, respectively.

Sykes et al.[12] in their original research study on dental students of various years observed that 85%–90% of students were capable of using and accessing internet sites for completing their projects, assignments, and study. PowerPoint presentations with adding various animations or videos are not difficult for them. Research further showed that 70%–85% of dental students were capable for using these internet sites individually without requiring anybody's help. They were competent to complete assignments, use of Google Forms, downloading and uploading videos, completion of online quizzes, learning and reading, etc. Most of the students required internets on daily or weekly basis to complete and submitting their works on time. Few students encountered difficulty in doing work online, and hence, there was need to educate and train these students to make them competent in handling online issues more confidently.

The shortcoming of the study is small sample size.

CONCLUSION

Authors found that interns were well prepared toward dental practice.

Financial support and sponsorship

Nil.

Conflicts of interest

There are no conflicts of interest.