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Impact of Community‐Based Clinical Training on Dental Students’ Confidence in Treating Pediatric Patients
Author(s) -
Coe Julie M.,
Brickhouse Tegwyn H.,
Bhatti Bushra A.,
Best Al M.
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
journal of dental education
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.53
H-Index - 68
eISSN - 1930-7837
pISSN - 0022-0337
DOI - 10.21815/jde.018.002
Subject(s) - medicine , confidence interval , feeling , graduation (instrument) , family medicine , demographics , pediatrics , psychology , social psychology , geometry , mathematics , demography , sociology
With a significant need for more general dentists to provide care for pediatric patients, previous studies have found that community‐based clinical training experience with children increased dental students’ willingness to provide care to pediatric patients after graduation. The aim of our study was to determine the impact of community‐based clinical training with pediatric patients on dental students’ self‐perceived confidence in treating pediatric patients, both overall and related to specific procedures. Of the total 105 fourth‐year dental students at one U.S. dental school invited to participate in the study in academic year 2011–12, 76 completed the survey about their community‐based dental education (CBDE), for a 72% response rate. Over half of the respondents (55%) reported feeling more confident in treating pediatric patients after their rotations. The increase in confidence was not associated with demographics. The placement of sealants (p=0.0022) and experience in giving local anesthesia (p=0.0008) were the two procedures most strongly associated with the increase in confidence. Also, these students received more experience in pulp therapy, extractions, and treating children up to three years of age during their community‐based rotations than in the school‐based clinic. In this study, greater exposure to pediatric dental clinical experiences during CBDE increased the students’ confidence in treating pediatric patients. These results suggest that community‐based experiences are useful in supplementing the school‐based pediatric clinical experience, including increasing entry‐level dentists’ confidence in treating pediatric patients.