This study was conducted to establish a baseline DREEM score for a Pakistani private dental college and a private dental college of Turkey, to compare the educational environment as perceived by the dental students' of the two institutes and provide insight into the aspects of dental education that are in need of improvement. METHODOLOGY: It's a cross-sectional, questionnaire based study conducted at Bahria University Medical and Dental College, Karachi (BUMDC) and a private dental college of Istanbul, Turkey between December 2018 and March 2019. The Dundee Ready Education Environment Measure was filled out by first, second and third year undergraduate dental students at both the institutes. Ethical approval was obtained from ethical review committee of BUMDC after consent was taken from the head of the Turkish institute. RESULTS: Global DREEM mean score of the two institutes was 116.6 ± 20.7. The overall DREEM score of Bahria University was 119.3 ±24.3 while of Turkish dental institute was 113.8±.16.1, with p-value = 0.000. Institutional DREEM depicts a student perception that is predominantly positive. In both the institutes, the perception regarding the social atmosphere (Students' Social Self Perception) scored lowest as compared to all other domains. CONCLUSION: Over all the educational environment at both the institutes is satisfactory however this study has highlighted a need for reforms to improve the social and teaching atmosphere. Despite the overall positive trend, the institutes have yet to achieve excellent status for educational environment. One can learn from the Turkish university in terms of how the social atmosphere can be improved, while the Turkish dental college can benefit by implementing a more student centered teaching methodology.
OBJECTIVE: To assess the perception of patients visiting a dental OPD in Karachi regarding cross infection control measures that should be taken in dental practice. METHODOLOGY: A cross-sectional study was conducted at the OPD of Altamash Institute of Dental Medicine from January to August 2020. A total of 546 patients aged 20-75 years of either gender coming for routine dental check-ups were included in the study using non-probability convenience sampling. A well-structured and validated questionnaire was used to assess the knowledge, attitude and practices of patients regarding cross infection measures that should be present in dental practices. SPSS-25 was used to analyze the data. Descriptive statistics was used to calculate frequency and percentage of qualitative (gender, socioeconomic and education status, knowledge attitude and practice levels of patients) and quantitative variables (age groups). Chi-square test was used to detect the relation of patient's knowledge levels with potential factors like the age groups, gender, socioeconomic and education status. The p-value of (< 0.05) was considered as significant. RESULTS: Out of the total participants, 79.1% had good knowledge about cross infection control measures in dental practice. Majority of the patients (84.6%) agreed that dentists should wear gloves during treatment, though majority were of the opinion that a dentist can treat several patients with the same set of gloves. About 4.9% of the patients said that they ask the dentist to wear face mask and gloves while treating them, and only 3.3% said that they ask the dentist about sterilization of instruments. The knowledge level of patients showed variation with their education status but not with respect to socioeconomic status, age and gender. CONCLUSION: Although overall the patients visiting dental clinics had good perception and showed positive attitudes towards cross infection control, the dental health practitioners need to disseminate basic technical information about the infection-control practices required for safe dental practice to dental patients and the community at large. KEYWORDS: cross infection, knowledge, dentist, dental patients, perception
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