Characteristics of the bachelor thesis in dentistry, Satisfaction and motivations of the students

Abstract

Objective: To describe the characteristics of under-graduate theses, satisfaction and reasons for choosing a topic of study. Materials and Methods: Cross-sectional study that included two populations, theses and thesis students who were able to support their work from 2015 to 2021 in the Faculty of Dentistry of the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos (Lima, Peru). Documentary analysis was used at first to record bibliometric data. The survey was used in a second stage to collect information related to the reasons why the thesis students chose their topic and the degree of satisfaction. Results: A total of 269 theses were examined. The theses corresponded to more women (n=142; 52.8%). All had a quantitative approach. The cross-sectional/descriptive design was the most frequent (n=207; 77%). Of the 114 respondents, the majority of them indicated that their thesis topic decision was influenced by a faculty member outside of their advisor (n= 26; 22.8%). A total of 49.1% of thesis students were in complete agreement about what they had learned about research at the end of their thesis. Conclusions: The undergraduate theses evidenced to be developed mainly by women, most of the thesis students were satisfied with the elaboration and execution of their academic work; it was evidenced that the thesis topics are mainly influenced by a teacher different from the thesis advisor, this indicates that the advisors should be more conscious when guiding the student and influencing the thematic, methodological and writing decisions together with the advised. Keywords: Dental Students; Motivation; Academic Dissertations; Satisfaction.