European Journal of Dental Education最新文献

Introduction

The COVID-19 pandemic had extensive influence on dental education. UK dental schools were compelled to respond with substantial adaptations to clinical training approaches and environments to mitigate educational impact.

Materials and Methods

The Surveying Pandemic Education Response in Higher Education Dental Schools (SPEARHEAD) study aimed to retrospectively evaluate the diverse responses of UK dental schools to the COVID-19 pandemic. All UK dental schools were invited to participate in semi-structured interviews to ascertain institutional responses, with transcripts subjected to thematic framework analysis.

Results and Discussion

Ten UK dental schools contributed to the study and three main themes were identified: student education, environment, and procedures and equipment. The most common approach to student education was the reduction of student numbers in clinical areas; however, this increased supervisory demands. While there was widespread acknowledgement of the need for enhanced ventilation, implementing the necessary modifications was frequently constrained by building configurations and financial implications. Numerous procedural adjustments were implemented, accompanied by widespread adoption of enhanced personal protective equipment. Fallow periods were common, although differing durations underscored the need for data-driven guidance. Many schools transitioned towards electric speed-controlled handpieces, but the need to reflect real-world scenarios often led to a reversion to air turbines.

Conclusion

UK dental schools showed initiative, resilience, and ingenuity in safeguarding students from enduring irretrievable educational setbacks amidst the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Validating a data-driven strategy for addressing future threats would facilitate a unified response, minimising the educational repercussions and bolstering the resilience of dental training.

Introduction

Compassionate care and empathy are fundamental components of health care which contribute to the social construction of physician–patient relationship to meet the expectations of the patients. The aim of this study was to evaluate clinical empathy among undergraduate dental students at a University in the Middle East.

Materials and Methods

It was a cross-sectional study which used purposive sampling to recruit undergraduate dental students from five academic years. The Jefferson Scale of Physician Empathy-Health Profession Students was used, a reliable 20-item tool with a total score ranging from 20 to 140. Data collection was done online using Google Forms. All data were analysed and visualised using RStudio (version 2023.06.2) incorporating R version 4.0.5. Descriptive statistics including confidence intervals were calculated for each item and for the combined data set. Analysis of variance was used to determine any significant variation between the results by demographic factors. Estimated marginal means were calculated from the ANOVA outcomes.

Results

Responses were received from 150 participants including 75 males and 75 females. The overall response rate was 90.36%. The overall mean total score was 96.01 (95% CI 93.73–98.30). Analysis of variance (ANOVA) identified significant variation by gender only with female participants achieving statistically significant higher overall scores than male participants (f = 6.502, p = 0.012).

Conclusion

The study evaluated empathy among dental undergraduate students. The total mean scores of the participants appeared to be comparable to those reported in the literature findings. Higher mean empathy scores were observed for female participants in the current study. These findings emphasise the need for targeted interventions to promote empathy among dental students to boost patient-centred care.

Generative language models (LLMs) have shown great potential in various fields, including medicine and education. This study evaluated and compared ChatGPT 3.5 and Google Bard within dental education and research.

Methods

We developed seven dental education-related queries to assess each model across various domains: their role in dental education, creation of specific exercises, simulations of dental problems with treatment options, development of assessment tools, proficiency in dental literature and their ability to identify, summarise and critique a specific article. Two blind reviewers scored the responses using defined metrics. The means and standard deviations of the scores were reported, and differences between the scores were analysed using Wilcoxon tests.

Results

ChatGPT 3.5 outperformed Bard in several tasks, including the ability to create highly comprehensive, accurate, clear, relevant and specific exercises on dental concepts, generate simulations of dental problems with treatment options and develop assessment tools. On the other hand, Bard was successful in retrieving real research, and it was able to critique the article it selected. Statistically significant differences were noted between the average scores of the two models (p ≤ 0.05) for domains 1 and 3.

Conclusion

This study highlights the potential of LLMs as dental education tools, enhancing learning through virtual simulations and critical performance analysis. However, the variability in LLMs' performance underscores the need for targeted training, particularly in evidence-based content generation. It is crucial for educators, students and practitioners to exercise caution when considering the delegation of critical educational or healthcare decisions to computer systems.

Aim

The aim of this study was to systematically review the relevant literature on teaching professionalism in dental curricula and report the relevant data from a survey of members of the Association for Dental Education in Europe (ADEE) on the topic.

Materials and Methods

We conducted a systematic review of the literature and a cross-sectional study using an online questionnaire regarding teaching and assessment of professionalism in dental schools, members of the ADEE. The literature review identified 33 articles related to professionalism in dental curricula. The survey sent to the membership of the Association for Dental Education in Europe yielded responses from 27 European dental schools and four schools outside Europe.

Results

Various study designs were identified in the review, and the main themes discussed included teaching/pedagogy, ethics/humanities, core domains and assessment of professionalism. Twenty schools reported having specific courses dedicated to professionalism, while the format varied, including entire modules, separate learning outcomes or unit structures. Ethics, communication, law/legal framework/deontology, teamworking and management/leadership were among the common topics taught under the banner of professionalism. Many schools reported increases or no changes in hours, staffing, themes/topics covered and weight in the curriculum for professionalism over the last decade.

Conclusion

The paper provides valuable insights into the current state of professionalism education in dental curricula and offers directions for enhancing its effectiveness and relevance in preparing future dental professionals. Collaborative efforts among dental educators and institutions can contribute to the continuous improvement of professionalism education and practice in dentistry.

Background

Dental regulators and educational institutions are increasingly concerned about the influence of digital platforms used by the profession for social, business, digital interaction with the public/patients and its impact on the professionalism in practice now and going forward. However, academic knowledge and research within dentistry are relevant to e-professionalism at a level of engagement and approach in delivering guidance to students through the current dental curriculum. The question therefore asked was what breadth of academic material, research, debate and discourse is available to inform our understanding, guidance and teaching on this ever-evolving topic.

Aim

To map how e-professionalism has developed in academic dental literature as a topic within the study of professionalism in practice.

Method

A rapid scoping review was conducted to identify published research that describes and tests the topic of professionalism from 2016 to 2023. Studies were synthesised narratively using thematic analysis to inform the understanding of what has been already researched in the field.

Results

Thirteen articles were included in the review. After undertaking a thematic analysis, five themes were constructed. These included: curriculum, opportunities and safe professional use, reflections, personal and professional identity issues, and students as co-creators.

Conclusions

Within dental research there is consensus that e-professionalism could present a tangible threat to the identity of dental professionals their clinical practice and interaction with patients/public however, less is known about what educational strategies are most effective when teaching e-professionalism.

Introduction

Dentists and oral health practitioners have a potential role in supporting the prevention and management of noncommunicable diseases. However, the extent to which university education prepares practitioners to provide nutrition care is unclear. This scoping review identifies and synthesises the evidence related to university-level nutrition education provided to dental and oral health students globally.

Methods

A scoping review identified relevant literature through search terms “dentistry,” “oral health,” or “oral hygiene”; “dental students” or “dental education”; “nutrition education” or “nutrition science.” Articles were included that examined nutrition education in undergraduate oral health training; or nutrition knowledge, attitudes, confidence, or skills or dietary habits; experts' opinion papers; and position statements. No limitations on the publication years or languages of the articles were applied.

Results

A total of 136 articles were included. Half were surveys of students (n = 49) or academic staff (n = 21). The remainder comprised reports of curriculum initiatives (n = 26), opinion papers or narrative reviews (n = 24), position statements (n = 6), curriculum development (n = 6) and curriculum guidelines (n = 9). While dental and oral health students and curriculum experts overwhelmingly recognised the importance of nutrition, most studies that assessed nutrition knowledge of students revealed limited knowledge. Students were not confident in their skills to provide nutrition care. Lack of nutrition experts on teaching teams and unclear expectations about developing nutrition competencies were identified as barriers to greater nutrition education.

Conclusion

Nutrition education in university dental and oral health degrees is highly variable. The potential for oral health professionals of the future to promote oral health through nutrition is unrealised.

Background

The literature on the use of social media in oral health education has grown in recent years; however, the research activity on this topic has not been comprehensibly summarised. This scoping review aimed to map the available literature on students' and faculty's use of social media in oral health education across the platforms.

Methods

This review was guided by Arksey and O'Malley's scoping review framework and adhered to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses extensions for scoping reviews (PRISMA-ScR). Seven databases were searched to include literature until October 2023. Studies were included if they were published in English and focused on using social media in oral health education. Two independent reviewers screened for article eligibility and extracted the relevant data.

Results

The review included 40 articles published between January 2008 and October 2023. Most studies used quantitative approaches, did not specify the study design, were noninterventional and reported on undergraduate dental students' use of social media. Included studies centred on patterns of use, views and actual effectiveness of social media. YouTube emerged as the most frequently used platform, followed by Podcast, Facebook and WhatsApp.

Conclusions

The use of social media in oral health education was found to be useful based on direct and indirect outcome measures. However, robust research designs are required to further evaluate the impact of social media on oral health education.

Objective

Prosthetic restorations require functional occlusal planes to ensure therapeutic success. The purpose of the present study was to develop a new Broadrick flag support for a semi-adjustable articulator and to investigate the effectiveness of occlusal planes drawn using the Broadrick flag method by inexperienced practitioners in complex situations such as skeletal class II relationships associated with edentulous areas.

Méthodology

The Broadrick flag support was designed and manufactured by the additive technique and was adapted to the Quick Master articulator. The QR code of the manufacturing file of the Broadrick flag support is accessible to any practitioner. Thirty-seven third-year students (inexperienced practitioners) were randomised into two groups for drawing occlusal planes on two models either with or without the Broadrick flag method. A prosthodontic professor (experienced practitioner) drew occlusal planes on the models to serve as references. Each model was analysed using a standardised method to measure the distances between the occlusal planes drawn by experienced and inexperienced practitioners.

Résults

Only the distance measured for the right second molar of the first model with the Broadrick flag method was significantly shorter than those measured without using this method (p < 0.05, Wilcoxon test). Visual observations showed that only the second molar drawings of the inexperienced practitioners were above the drawings of the experienced practitioner.

Conclusion

The Broadrick flag method helped inexperienced practitioners to draw occlusal planes of models in complex skeletal class II relationships associated with edentulous areas with natural teeth located both anterior and posterior to them.

Introduction

As a large language model, chat generative pretrained transformer (ChatGPT) has provided a valuable tool for various medical scenarios with its interactive dialogue-based interface. However, there is a lack of studies on ChatGPT's effectiveness in handling dental tasks. This study aimed to compare the knowledge and comprehension abilities of ChatGPT-3.5/4 with that of dental students about periodontal surgery.

Materials and Methods

A total of 134 dental students participated in this study. We designed a questionnaire consisting of four questions about the inclination for ChatGPT, 25 multiple-choice, and one open-ended question. As the comparison of ChatGPT-3.5 and 4, the question about the inclination was removed, and the rest was the same. The response time of ChatGPT-3.5 and 4 as well as the comparison of ChatGPT-3.5 and 4′ performances with dental students were measured. Regarding students' feedback on the open-ended question, we also compared the outcomes of ChatGPT-4′ and teacher's review.

Results

On average, ChatGPT-3.5 and 4 required 3.63 ± 1.18 s (95% confidence interval [CI], 3.14, 4.11) and 12.49 ± 7.29 s (95% CI, 9.48, 15.50), respectively (p < 0.001) for each multiple-choice question. For these 25 questions, the accuracy was 21.51 ± 2.72, 14 and 20 for students, ChatGPT-3.5 and 4, respectively. Furthermore, the outcomes of ChatGPT-4's review were consistent with that of teacher's review.

Conclusions

For dental examinations related to periodontal surgery, ChatGPT's accuracy was not yet comparable to that of the students. Nevertheless, ChatGPT shows promise in assisting students with the curriculum and helping practitioners with clinical letters and reviews of students' textual descriptions.

Aim

To determine the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on depression, anxiety and stress of dental students by way of a systematic review.

Materials and Methods

This review was conducted following the Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews. An electronic search was conducted for the period January 2020 to February 2023. Quality assessment was evaluated in accordance with the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale. Frequency distribution was calculated for stress, anxiety and depression associated with students' gender, year of study and living circumstances.

Results

Twenty-three studies were eligible for inclusion in the final review. Variables contributing to stress, anxiety and depression of dental students include gender, year of study and living circumstances. Being female is the most significant factor impacting on mental health.

Conclusions

Results emphasise the need for dental institutions to develop targeted intervention programmes for more vulnerable students. Failure to act in a future pandemic event could result in ongoing psychological issues that persist following graduation, resulting in unfit dentists who may potentially affect the quality of the dental workforce.