Dental students’ approach to the formulation of a diagnosis and treatment plan during their periodontal training: Examining the effect of didactic and clinical experiences from a mixed methods perspective.

• Author / Creator

  Amirsalar Mofidi

• Periodontitis is a multifactorial infectious disease, whereby the interplay of bacterial load, host immunoinflammatory response, environmental and local risk factors interact and shape its progression. Competent diagnosis of differing forms of periodontitis is based on decision-making schemes and utilization of clinical parameters which allow for the recording, monitoring and treatment of periodontitis.This mixed methods study evaluated third and fourth-year dental students’ competence and confidence in rendering periodontal care and explored the reasons students put forth for their suboptimal performance in periodontal education. A survey was used to assess participant competence and confidence in questions regarding medical history, periodontal examination, treatment, diagnosis and maintenance ascription. The survey was first circulated amongst ten periodontists to establish the gold standard responses to the questions. This survey was then administered to third and fourth-year dental students at the University of Alberta in the Fall and Winter 2017/2018.The survey had 52 respondents. The students performed well on diagnostic parameters and instrument selection, modestly on medical history intake and periodontal examination and poorly on maintenance schedule ascription. In general, fourth year dental students performed better than their third-year counterparts. Students were less confident as questions were more periodontal care detailed. The students’ academic year did not predict correct diagnostic response for the diagnostic cases. Aggressive periodontitis was identified <50% of the time. No correlation was found between confidence and correct responses.To assess the reasons for student suboptimal performance and challenges they faced, thematic analysis was employed to analyze eleven students’ interviews. Themes derived from theii qualitative analysis referred to the reasons that students stated when accounting for their suboptimal performance in periodontal care. These themes were related to pre-clinical and clinical learning of periodontics. Pre-clinical themes included, relevant periodontal content insufficiently covered, relevant periodontal content inadequately delivered and insufficient simulation of clinical skills. The clinical themes focused on instructor inconsistencies, fragmentation of treatment rendering, and mismatch between patient complexity and student readiness. Within the qualitative research, the students noted some consequences the shortcoming they faced had for their periodontal education. The study conducted allowed for exploration of areas in which the undergraduate periodontics curriculum would benefit from making changes and highlighted areas. Ultimately it is concluded that there are shortcomings in the periodontal education of undergraduate dental students. These problems are present in both the didactic and clinical components of their education. In order to counter these issues and help students be proficient in periodontology, considerations for instructor calibration, cohesion between didactic and clinical education, patient focused treatment and importance of integrative feedback should be considered.

• Subjects / Keywords

  • Dental education
  • periodontal education
  • Mixed Methods Research

• Graduation date

  Fall 2020

• Type of Item

  Thesis

• Degree

  Master of Science

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/r3-06h3-hp82

• License

  Permission is hereby granted to the University of Alberta Libraries to reproduce single copies of this thesis and to lend or sell such copies for private, scholarly or scientific research purposes only. Where the thesis is converted to, or otherwise made available in digital form, the University of Alberta will advise potential users of the thesis of these terms. The author reserves all other publication and other rights in association with the copyright in the thesis and, except as herein before provided, neither the thesis nor any substantial portion thereof may be printed or otherwise reproduced in any material form whatsoever without the author's prior written permission.