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Students' self‐confidence and perceived quality of prosthodontics education: A study in the Faculty of Dental Medicine of the University of Porto
Author(s) -
SampaioFernandes Margarida,
Dutra Maria,
Oliveira Susana João,
ReisCampos José Carlos,
Azevedo Álvaro,
Figueiral Maria Helena
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
european journal of dental education
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.583
H-Index - 41
eISSN - 1600-0579
pISSN - 1396-5883
DOI - 10.1111/eje.12537
Subject(s) - prosthodontics , fixed prosthodontics , medicine , dentistry , dentures , medical education , confidence interval , dental education , population , psychology , orthodontics , environmental health
Oral rehabilitation with removable dentures (RDs) is still a viable choice for the edentulous population. Fostering students' confidence in prosthodontic procedures should be a major concern in dental schools. This study has three purposes: (a) to measure the self‐reported confidence levels of undergraduate dental students when performing removable prosthodontic treatments; (b) to evaluate the students' perceived quality of removable prosthodontics education; and (c) to assess the students' suggestions to improve removable prosthodontics education. Materials and Methods An anonymous questionnaire was delivered to third‐, fourth‐ and fifth‐year students of the Faculty of Dental Medicine of the University of Porto (FMDUP) (n = 176). Data from quantitative questions were statistically analysed with IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows (V.24.0), whilst qualitative data were clustered into topics and analysed in Excel. Results With a 100% response rate, most students felt “confident” and “very confident” in RD clinical procedures. Overall, the 5th‐year students had higher confidence than 4th‐year ones, except when surveying diagnostic casts. Our findings also revealed that students considered the removable prosthodontics education “Good” and “Very good,” and their main suggestions were related to increasing the time allocated to clinical practice. Conclusions Students' confidence in carrying out removable prosthodontic procedures grew as they progressed through the course. Overall, the students' evaluation of the quality of prosthodontics education was positive, and their main suggestion to improve their confidence levels was increasing the clinical experience.