Assessment of carious dental lesions and treatment options: comparison of the knowledge of dental students and orthodontic assistants

Bundesgesundheitsblatt Gesundheitsforschung Gesundheitsschutz. 2023 Nov 9. doi: 10.1007/s00103-023-03799-w. Online ahead of print.ABSTRACTIn order to optimize dental education, established procedures for caries diagnosis and therapy, such as the International Caries Classification and Management System (ICCMS), should be integrated into the curriculum. In preparation, the level of knowledge of dental students on caries detection and management was surveyed in order to specifically address deficits in dental teaching. In addition, the data were compared with the knowledge of clinically experienced dentists. The results are presented in this report and possible consequences for dental teaching are discussed.Twenty-six sixth semester dental students and six assistant dentists at the Department of Orthodontics (Philipps University of Marburg, Germany) were available for the written survey during the winter semester 2018/2019. For 12 anonymized orthodontic patient cases, the clinical findings, caries risk, and adequate treatment were to be determined for each defined tooth. The consensus decision of two experienced dentists served as the reference value. As a result, agreement with the reference ranged from 40.7% to 51.3% for students and from 56.9% to 75.0% for assistant dentists. The extent of caries and the resulting necessary treatment were mostly underestimated.In addition to theoretical knowledge, clinical experience is another prerequisite for adequate caries diagnosis and ...
Source: Bundesgesundheitsblatt, Gesundheitsforschung, Gesundheitsschutz - Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: Source Type: research